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Nicholas  Murray  Butler 


HOME  UNIVERSITY  LIBRARY 
OF  MODERN  KNOWLEDGE 

No.  46 

Editors: 

HERBERT    FISHER,  M.A.,  F.B.A. 

Prof.   GILBERT  MURRAY,  Litt.D., 

LL.D.,  F.B.A. 
Prof.  J.  ARTHUR    THOMSON,  M.A. 
Prof.  WILLIAM  T.  BREWSTER,  M.A. 


THE  HOME  UI^IYEESITY  LIBEAKYi 
OE  MODERE"  KNOWLEDGE 

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PHILOSOPHY  AND  RELIGION 

Just  Published 
PROBLEMS  OF  PHILOSOPHY   .   By  Bertrand  Russell 

Future   Issues 
THE    OLD   TESTAMENT   ....   By  George  Moore 
BETWEEN  THE  OLD  AND  NEW 

TESTAMENTS By  R.  H.  Charles 

THE     MAKING    OF    THE    NEW 

TESTAMENT »   By  B.  W.  Bacon 

ETHICS      By  G.  E.  Moore 

COMPARATIVE      RELIGION   .    .   By  J,  Estlin  Carpenter 
A   HISTORY   OF   FREEDOM    OF 

THOUGHT By  J.  B.  Bury 

BUDDHISM      By  Mrs.  Rhys  Davids 

NONCONFORMITY     AND     THE 

FREE  CHURCHES By  Principal  Selbie 


ENGLISH    SECTS 

A   HISTORY   OF 

NONCONFORMITY 


BY 

W.  B.  SELBIE,  M.A.,  D.D. 

PRINCIPAL  OF    MANSFIELD   COLLEGE 
OXFORD 


NEW  YORK 
HENRY  HOLT  AND  COMPANY 

>    _  :    '  i,gn:<)0'w  J  /A 

WILLIAMS   AND    NORGATE 


?5'4r 


CONTENTS 

CHAP.  PAGB 

I    The  Beginnings 7 

II    The  Anglican  Settlement  and  the  Puritan 

Reaction 24 

III  The  Separatists 43 

IV  Laud  and  the  Puritans      .        .        .        .60 
V    Presbyterians  and  Independents      .        ,    76 

VI    The  Quakers 95 

VII    The  Restoration 114 

VIII    The  Revolution 134 

IX    Reaction  and  Decline        ....  152 

X    The  Revival 171 

XI    Progress  and  Consolidation      .        ,        .  198 

XII    The  Present  Time 225 

Bibliography 252 

Index 254 


NONCONFOEMITY : 
ITS  OEIGIN  AND  PE0GEES8 


CHAPTER  I 

THE    BEGINNINGS 

The  rise  of  Nonconformity  in  England  was 
due  to  a  great  variety  of  causes.  Some  of 
these  were  local  and  occasional  in  their  opera- 
tion, while  others  of  them  may  be  said  to  be 
universal  and  permanent.  These  have  to  do 
with  the  very  nature  of  the  Christian  religion, 
and  with  the  special  genius  of  the  British 
people.  As  early  as  the  beginning  of  the 
fourteenth  century,  when  the  people  of  this 
country  were  nominally  all  of  one  faith,  there 
were  many  signs  that  the  uniformity  was  by 
no  means  so  complete  as  it  seemed.  Saxon 
and  Norman  were  not  yet  fused  into  one  race. 
The  Normans  loved  the  ornate  and  splendid 
ritual  of  the  Roman  Church,  but  the  Saxons 
were  a  plainer  folk  and  preferred  a  simpler 
worship.     The  distinction  between  the  two 


8  NONCONFORMITY 

peoples  corresponded  roughly  to  the  dis- 
tinction between  aristocrats  and  democrats. 
The  average  monk  or  priest  was  an  aristocrat 
by  birth,  training  and  association.  He  was 
not  of  the  common  people,  nor  was  he  on 
their  side  in  the  hour  of  their  need.  -  This 
helps  to  explain  what  happened  at  the  Coming 
of  the  Friars.  The  people  responded  eagerly 
to  the  call  of  these  priests,  who  were  ready 
to  share  their  lot  and  to  speak  in  their  tongue. 
The  Friars  had  the  Pope's  licence  to  preach 
either  in  sacred  buildings  or  in  the  open  air, 
and  they  freely  availed  themselves  of  the 
privilege.  Their  coming  wrought  something 
» like  a  religious  revolution.  With  their  coarse 
wit  and  homely  speech  they  brought  religion 
^home  to  the  men  in  the  street,  and  created 
an  ideal  of  religious  service  which  did  not 
increase  the  popularity  of  those  idle  shepherds 
who  devoured  their  flocks  instead  of  feeding 
them.  The  Friars  were,  of  course,  loyal  sons 
of  Rome,  and  there  is  no  trace  of  heresy  or 
,  disaffection  in  their  preaching.  But,  for  all 
that,  they  prepared  the  way  for  Wyclif  and 
the  Lollards,  and  for  that  temper  of  mind 
which  will  not  always  yield  to  authority,  but 
loves  to  exercise  an  independent  judgment 
in  matters  of  religion. 

It  is  not  surprising,  therefore,  that  even 
before  Wyclif's  day  signs  of  revolt  against 
the  dominant  Church  should  be  not  infre- 
quently forthcoming.  They  were  confined  at 
first  to  a  few  obscure  people,  and  were  easily 


THE  BEGINNINGS  9 

and  quickly  suppressed  by  the  iron  hand  of 
authority  ;  but  they  show  that  the  temper 
of  the  people  was  not  unprepared  for  change. 
It  was  at  least  a  hundred  and  fifty  years 
before  the  Reformation  that  the  process 
which  culminated  in  that  great  movement 
began.  The  reign  of  Edward  III  marked  a 
real  step  forward  in  the  history  of  the  English 
people.  It  was  the  age  of  Chaucer  and  Lang- 
land,  and  it  saw  the  rise  of  all  those  intel- 
lectual, spiritual  and  political  forces  which 
make  for  religious  revival  and  revolt.  The 
Reformation  in  England  and  Scotland  was 
no  sudden  thing,  still  less  was  it  a  mere 
political  movement.  It  had  long  been  pre- 
pared for,  and  the  form  it  took  was  the  result 
of  the  peculiar  temper  and  special  circum- 
stances of  the  people  of  these  islands.  Among 
the  greatest  Reformers  before  the  Reforma- 
tion was  John  Wyclif  (1320-1384),  a  man 
who,  in  almost  every  respect,  was  in  advance) 
of  his  age,  and  who  stands  out  as  one  who  has 
left  his  impress  not  only  on  his  own  genera- 
tion, but  on  the  whole  life  of  our  people.  After 
having  been  Master  of  Balliol  College,  Oxford, 
he  became  vicar,  first  of  Fillingham  in  Lin- 
colnshire, and  afterwards  of  Ludgershall 
in  Buckinghamshire,  and  of  Lutterworth  in 
Leicestershire.  During  his  whole  life  his 
energies  were  directed  against  the  corruptions 
of  the  Church,  its  moral  failures  and  its 
usurpation  of  the  temporal  power.  Though 
he  aimed  at  Reformation   he  was  no  mere 


10  NONCONFORMITY 

idealist.  His  practical  mind  would  not  suffer 
him  to  be  contented  with  pointing  out  the 
better  way  ;  he  sought  to  walk  in  it  himself 
and  to  train  others  to  follow  him.  He  was  not 
concerned  to  write  and  speak  only  for  scholars, 
but  appealed  to  the  common  people,  and  did 
so  in  terms  which  they  could  understand. 

Wyclif's  doctrine  was  for  the  age  in  which 
he  lived  revolutionary.  He  taught  the  sole 
and  supreme  authority  of  Scripture,  and 
upheld  it  as  against  either  the  Church  or 
tradition.  He  recognised  the  right  of  private 
judgment,  and  made  men  hold  themselves 
responsible  for  their  own  religious  beliefs. 
By  his  doctrine  of  "  dominion  founded  in 
grace "  he  sought  to  defend  the  rights  of 
God  over  the  human  conscience  against  those  of 
priest  and  Pope.  He  appealed  to  the  primitive 
Church  as  the  source  of  the  true  doctrine  of 
the  ministry  and  the  sacraments,  and  strongly 
condemned  the  use  of  irnages,  relics,  etc.,  and 
the  celibacy  of  the  clergy.  Over  against  the 
elaborate  worship  and  organisation  of  the 
Roman  Church  he  set  the  simplicity  of  Christ. 
In  all  these  respects  he  was  a  pioneer,  and 
his  work  lived  after  him.  Though  his  life 
was  one  long  controversy  he  had  many  sym- 
pathisers. Both  in  the  University  of  Oxford 
and  in  the  country  at  large,  there  were  men 
who  only  needed  the  kind  of  impulse  Wyclif 
gave,  in  order  to  set  themselves  in  revolt 
against  the  existing  Church  system.  He 
found  no  difficulty,  therefore,  in  committing 


THE  BEGINNINGS  11 

his  doctrine  to  companies  of  faithful  men, 
who  made  it  their  business  to  preach  it  up 
and  down  the  land.  They  followed  the 
example  of  the  Friars  and,  clad  in  long 
russet  gowns,  barefooted,  and  staff  in  hand, 
wandered  about  teaching  the  people  wher- 
ever they  could  obtain  a  hearing.  It  was  by 
the  work  of  these  Lollards,  as  they  came  to 
be  called,  and  by  his  rendering  of  the  Bible 
into  English,  that  Wyclif  prepared  the  way 
for  the  real  and  fuller  Reformation  of  later 
days.  His  followers  were  met  with  bitter 
persecution  from  the  authorities,  and,  not 
long  after  Wyclif's  death,  the  whole  move- 
ment seemed  to  have  been  stamped  out.  In 
reality  it  was  only  driven  underground — the 
seed  was  not  killed,  but  only  waited  for  its 
due  season  to  germinate.  Like  Wesley  in 
later  times,  Wyclif  never  separated  himself 
from  the  Church  of  his  fathers.  After  his 
death,  however,  his  followers  carried  his 
teaching  to  its  logical  conclusion,  and  began 
to  set  up  a  new  form  of  Church  for  themselves. 
It  is  in  the  year  1382  that  we  find  the  first  use 
of  the  name  "  Lollard,"  and  it  was  probably  no 
more  than  a  nickname,  as  was  the  term 
"Methodist,"  when  it  first  began  to  be  em- 
ployed. The  time  was  one  of  social  distress 
and  economic  change.  The  Peasant  Rising 
which  culminated  in  1381  was  due  to  the 
ravages  of  the  Black  Death,  to  the  im- 
position of  the  Poll  tax,  to  the  poverty 
caused  by  the  French  Wars,  and  the  conse- 


12  NONCONFORMITY 

quent  harsh  measures  adopted  to  regulate 
the  price  of  food  and  the  rate  of  wages.  There 
is  but  little  evidence  to  show  that  the 
social  discontent  was  directly  fostered  by  the 
teaching  of  the  "  poor  priests,"  though  it  is 
not  improbable  that  they  sympathised  .with 
the  victims  of  oppression  and  poverty,  and 
denounced  the  evils  of  the  time.  In  any 
case,  the  excesses  of  the  revolt  brought  them 
no  little  unpopularity,  and  their  supposed 
complicity  with  it  formed  a  good  excuse  for 
those  who  were  only  too  willing  to  persecute 
them.  Recent  researches  have  shown  that  in 
spite  of  the  strong  measures  taken  against 
them,  the  Lollards  continued  to  grow,  and 
traces  of  their  teaching  and  of  communities 
called  by  their  name  are  to  be  found  in  many 
parts  of  the  country.  The  fact  that  they  took 
upon  themselves  to  ordain  others  to  the 
ministry  of  the  word  and  sacraments  excited 
the  utmost  horror,  and  goes  to  show  how  far 
they  had  become  independent  of  the  ordinary 
channels  of  religion.  For  more  than  a  century 
and  a  half  the  persecution  was  continued. 
Acts  of  Parliament  against  Lollardy  were 
frequent,  and  even  when  they  were  finally 
repealed  under  Elizabeth,  the  oath  against 
it  was  exacted  from  magistrates  until  as 
late  as  the  year  1625. 

In  the  closing  years  of  the  reign  of 
Richard  II  certain  of  the  Lollard  leaders 
presented  to  Parliament  a  memorial  in  which 
they  denounced  those  practices  of  the  Church 


THE  BEGINNINGS  13 

to  which  they  objected.  Among  them  were  en- 
dowment, transubstantiation,  vows  of  chastity, 
the  blessing  of  inanimate  things,  exorcism, 
prayers  for  the  dead,  auricular  confession, 
the  worship  of  images,  the  holding  of  secular 
offices  by  priests,  and  the  practice  of  un- 
necessary arts  leading  to  luxury.  This 
memorial  was  bitterly  opposed  by  the  clergy, 
led  by  the  Archbishop  of  York  and  the 
Bishop  of  London,  who  persuaded  the  King 
to  call  on  the  leaders  of  the  movement  to 
recant.  This  proved  the  beginning  of  a  long 
period  of  persecution,  which  culminated  in 
1401  in  the  Act  for  the  Burning  of  Heretics. 
From  this  time  onwards  one  and  another 
of  the  Lollards  suffered  death  by  fire, 
but  the  main  effect  of  such  a  policy  was 
only  to  swell  their  ranks.  They  held 
their  meetings  in  woods,  lonely  fields  and 
secret  places ;  they  scattered  tracts  among 
the  people,  and  were  diligent  in  denouncing 
the  evils  of  the  Church  and  State.  In  1414 
took  place  the  famous  gathering  in  St.  Giles 
Fields,  London,  where  a  large  body  of 
Lollards  came  together,  partly  in  order  to 
hear  the  preaching  of  one  John  Beverley, 
but  partly  also  with  some  wild  and  unformed 
notions  of  protest  and  revolt,  against  the 
house  of  Lancaster.  The  movement  was 
quite  abortive,  but  it  was  enough  to  stamp 
Lollardy  as  treason,  and  it  led  to  fresh  Acts 
of  Parliament  against  "  heresies,  errors  and 
loUardies "    as    being    dangerous    to    public 


14  NONCONFORMITY 

order.  The  leaders  were  killed  or  scattered, 
and  the  whole  movement  was  once  more 
driven  underground  But  it  still  lived; 
and  though  our  records  of  the  period  are 
extremely  scanty,  they  are  full  enough  to 
show  that  throughout  the  whole  kingdom, 
and  especially  in  Buckinghamshire  and  the 
home  counties,  there  were  multitudes  of 
devout  men  and  women  who  were  only 
waiting  the  time  when  they  might  openly 
show  their  dissent  from  the  teaching  and 
work  of  the  Church.  They  were  "  Bible 
men,"  who  sought  to  build  up  Christianity 
again  from  the  foundations.  Some  of  the 
books  and  tracts  written  by  and  against 
them  show  that  they  by  no  means  belonged 
only  to  the  poor  and  illiterate  classes.  They 
had  their  friends  in  both  Universities,  and 
they  could  command  the  services  of  men  of 
intelligence  and  learning. 

It  was  natural  that  men  such  as  these 
should  very  quickly  feel  the  influence  of 
the  work  and  teaching  of  Luther.  They 
became  a  ready  channel  for  the  spread  of 
his  ideas  in  England,  and  they  were  pro- 
foundly influenced  by  his  spirit.  But  it 
is  important  to  keep  in  mind  that,  long 
before  Luther's  day,  there  was  in  this  country 
a  genuine  anticipation  of  his  work  and  aims 
on  the  part  of  men  and  women  who  had 
come  to  feel  for  themselves  the  need  of  a 
deeper  and  more  spiritual  religion  than  that 
of  the  Church  of  their  time.     They  worked 


THE  BEGINNINGS  15 

under  the  direct  guidance  and  inspiration  of 
the  New  Testament,  and  they  reached  a 
position  which  has  well  been  described  as 
at  once  evangelical  and  free.  Negatively 
they  were  Nonconformists,  quite  as  much 
as  those  of  a  later  day  to  whom  the 
name  was  first  given,  but  their  attitude  was 
more  than  a  mere  negative  one.  They 
built  on  the  word  of  God  as  they  found  it  in 
the  Scriptures,  and  they  claimed  the  right  to 
put  their  own  interpretation  upon  it.  In 
this  respect  they  have  close  affinities  with 
those  Continental  heretics  called  Publicans, 
Paterines  and  Weavers,  some  of  whom  had 
penetrated  to  England  as  early  as  the  twelfth 
century.  These  are  now  generally  regarded 
as  representing  a  widespread  revolt  against 
the  corruptions  of  the  Roman  Church,  and 
in  favour  of  a  simpler  and  more  spiritual 
form  of  faith.  It  is  significant  that  John 
Foxe,  writing  in  the  reign  of  Elizabeth,  was 
able  to  look  back  to  a  time  when  men  of 
this  temper  were  more  numerous  and  more 
zealous  than  in  his  own  day.  He  says : 
"  Altho  public  authority  then  lacked  to 
maintain  the  open  preaching  of  the  Gospel, 
yet  the  secret  multitude  of  true  professors 
was  not  much  unequal :  certes  the  fervent  zeal 
of  those  Christian  days  seemed  much  superior 
to  these  our  days  and  times  :  as  manifestly 
may  appear  by  their  sitting  up  all  night  in 
reading  and  hearing  :  also  by  their  expenses 
and  charges  in  buying  of  book?  in  English, 


16  NONCONFORMITY 

of  whom  some  gave  five  marks,  some  more, 
some  less  for  a  book  :  some  gave  a  load  of 
hay  for  a  few  chapters  of  St.  James  or  of 
St.  Paul  in  English.  In  which  variety  of 
books  and  want  of  teachers  this  one  thing 
I  greatly  marvel  and  muse  at ;  to  note  in 
the  Registers  and  to  consider  how  the  word 
of  truth,  notwithstanding,  did  multiply  so 
exceedingly  as  it  did  amongst  them." 

It  must  not  be  supposed,  however,  that, 
in  the  time  of  which  we  are  speaking,  there 
v/ere  any  organised  Churches  side  by  side 
with  the  established  Church  of  the  land. 
Men  and  women  met  together,  as  we  have 
seen,  to  give  expression  to  their  religious 
needs  and  to  worship  God  according  to  the 
light  of  their  own  consciences.  But  the 
meetings  were  secret  and  sporadic,  and  there 
was  probably  no  uniformity  among  them 
either  of  ritual  or  method.  But  it  may 
certainly  be  taken  for  granted  that  the 
number  of  them  was  greater  than  used  to 
be  supposed,  and  that  they  stood  for  a 
remarkable  and  widespread  religious  move- 
ment. Apart  from  this,  it  would  be  very 
difficult  to  account  for  the  rapid  advance 
of  Protestant  and  Free  Church  doctrines 
in  later  times.  The  fact  is  that,  for  centuries, 
the  ground  had  been  prepared.  In  every 
class  of  the  community  there  were  men  of 
devout  life  and  stern  spirit  who  were  already 
in  love  with  religious  freedom,  and  sought 
for  a  higher  ideal  both  of  conduct  and  worship 


THE  BEGINNINGS  17 

than  they  were  able  to  find  in  the  Church  as 
they  knew  it.  No  account  of  English  Non- 
conformity can  be  regarded  as  complete,  or 
intelligible,  which  does  not  reckon  with  such 
men  as  these  and  with  the  work  they  did. 

In  the  reign  of  Henry  VIII  began  the  long 
quarrel  which  ended  in  the  severance  between 
the  English  Crown  and  the  Papacy.  With  the 
purely  political  aspect  of  this  struggle  we 
are  not  here  concerned,  save  in  so  far  as  it 
gave  an  impetus  to  the  revolt  against  Rome 
on  scriptural  and  religious  grounds,  the 
beginnings  of  which  we  have  already  traced. 
Both  under  Henry,  Edward  VI,  and  Mary 
there  was  a  considerable  increase  in  the 
number  of  the  malcontents,  and  traces  of 
their  meetings  and  influence  are  found  in 
most  of  the  memorials  of  the  period.  It  was 
in  1550  that  Strype  notes  in  regard  to  certain 
sectaries  in  Kent  and  Essex  that,  "  These 
were  the  first  that  made  separation  from 
the  Reformed  Church  of  England,  having 
gathered  congregations  of  their  own."  They 
are  described  as  "  mean  people  "  who  met 
together  "to  talk  of  the  Scriptures";  and 
mention  is  made  of  the  fact  that  the  meetings 
in  different  places  held  communications 
with  each  other,  and  even  exchanged  their 
teachers.  It  may  be  easily  understood  that 
the  men  who  were  responsible  for  these 
gatherings  were  not  greatly  affected  by  the 
fact  of  the  substitution  of  the  King  for  the 
Pope  as  the  Supreme  Head  of  the  Church  of 


18  NONCONFORMITY 

England.  Certainly  they  would  be  far  more 
keenly  interested  in  the  setting  up  of  the 
first  Prayer  Book  of  Edward  VI,  and  in  the 
two  Acts  for  Uniformity  of  Service  and  Worship 
passed  in  his  reign  (1549  and  1552).  They 
were  also  profoundly  affected  by  the  change 
which  took  place  under  Mary;  and  by  the 
persecutions  which  culminated  in  the  burning 
of  Hooper,  Ridley,  Latimer  and  Cranmer 
they  were  able  to  measure  the  condemnation 
in  which  they  stood  themselves.  But  during 
the  whole  of  this  period,  as  always,  the  blood 
of  the  martyrs  became  the  seed  of  the  Church. 
The  revolt  against  Rome  grew  in  volume 
and  power,  and  found  for  itself  complete 
justification,  not  so  much  in  the  actions  of 
men  as  in  the  word  of  God. 

For  the  turning-point  in  the  struggle  we 
have  to  look  to  the  Continent  of  Europe 
where  Luther  had  already  done  his  work. 
As  the  results  of  this  filtered  into  England, 
they  gave  a  new  aspect  to  the  existing 
movement  towards  Reformation  there.  It 
had  already  received  fresh  intellectual  im- 
petus from  the  work  of  men  like  Colet  and 
Erasmus,  and  in  the  Universities,  and  among 
the  better  sort  of  clergy,  the  ground  was 
being  prepared  for  the  new  harvest  that 
was  to  come.  The  people  were  still,  in  the 
vast  majority,  strictly  Catholic,  and  the 
difficulties  of  Henry  VIII,  who  had  to 
reconcile  a  Catholic  population  to  an  anti- 
Papal    government,     wexe    by     no    means 


THE  BEGINNINGS  19 

lessened  by  the  fact  that  there  was  growing 
up  a  large  body  of  opinion  favourable  to  a 
revolt  from  Rome,   that   was   religious   and 
theological   rather  than   merely   political   or 
of  expediency.     This  tendency  was   greatly 
furthered,   especially   in  cultured  circles,  by 
the   publication   of    the    New   Testament   in 
the  original  tongues.     The  great  work  of  the 
sixteenth  century  was  the  issue  of  Erasmus' 
New    Testament    in     Greek    with    a    Latin 
translation — the  raising  of  a  spiritual  temple 
in  desolated  Christendom.     When  its  author 
wrote,    "  Perhaps    it    may   be   necessary   to 
conceal  the  secrets  of  kings,  but  we  must 
publish  the  mysteries  of  Christ.     The  Holy 
Scriptures,    translated    into    all    languages, 
should  be  read  not  only  by  the  Scotch  and 
Irish,    but    even    by    Turks    and    Saracens. 
The   husbandman   should   sing   them   as   he 
holds  the  handle  of  the  plough,  the  weaver 
repeat  them  as  he  plies  his  shuttle,  and  the 
wearied    traveller,    halting    on    his    journey, 
refresh  him  under  some  shady  tree  by  these 
godly   narratives,"    he   was    buOding   better 
than   he  knew.     The  work  was   well   done, 
and  it  received  a  splendid  welcome.     It  was 
condemned  in  the  confessional  as  the  source 
of  all  heresies,  but  in  the  homes  of  the  clergy 
and  of  the  more  cultm-ed  laity,  as  well  as 
in  the  Universities,  it  was  eagerly  read  and 
canvassed.     Men    like    Bilney    and    Tyndale 
made  it  their  business  to  spread  the  know- 
ledge of  it,  and  in  due  time  the  latter  pub- 


20  NONCONFORMITY 

lished  his  English  translation  of  the  New 
Testament,  with  the  issue  of  which  the 
Reformation  in  this  country  may  be  said 
to  have  really  begun.  Tyndale's  version  of 
the  New  Testament  appeared  in  1525.  Ten 
years  later  Miles  Coverdale  gave  to  the 
world  the  whole  Bible  in  English.  And 
the  great  English  Bible  was  authorised  to  be 
read  in  churches  in  1539.  The  seed  was 
now  sown,  and  the  story  of  its  growing  and 
of  the  fruit  which  it  bore  is  the  story  that 
we  have  to  tell. 

Meanwhile  Scotland  too  was  beginning  to 
feel  the  effect  of  the  new  life  and  was  pre- 
paring for  the  great  part  which  she  was 
afterwards  to  play  in  the  work  of  reforma- 
tion. The  country  was  poor  and  sparsely 
peopled,  and  had  been  slower  to  emerge 
from  the  darkness  of  the  Middle  Ages  than 
her  sister  in  the  south.  But  her  Church 
was  rich,  and  the  clergy  numerous  and 
inefficient.  With  wealth  went  corruption, 
and  many  of  the  rulers  of  the  Church  de- 
served the  names  of  "  dumb  dogs,"  and 
"  idle  bellies,"  with  which  they  were  freely 
greeted.  It  was  a  soil  ripe  for  revolution 
in  religion.  LoUardy  had  made  itself  felt, 
and  in  spite  of  persecution  had  never  been 
quite  put  an  end  to.  And  after  1528 
Lutheran  influences  were  at  work  among 
the  people,  while  humanism  and  new  theology 
affected  the  Universities.  The  result  was 
a   certain   measure   of   Protestantism  which 


THE  BEGINNINGS  21 

captured  a  number  of  leading  families,  and 
had  within  it  the  elements  of  permanence. 
But  it  was  Protestantism  of  a  Calvinistic 
sort,  and  John  Knox  was  its  prophet.  In 
the  end  of  1557  the  first  Covenant  was 
signed  and  the  first  "  Congregation  of  Jesus 
Christ  "  was  set  up  in  avowed  opposition 
to  the  "  Congregation  of  Satan,"  another 
name  for  Rome.  The  change  in  religion 
had  much  to  do  with  the  new  attitude  of 
England  to  Scotland.  The  old  claim  to 
suzerainty  gradually  ceased  to  be  asserted, 
and  the  time  was  not  far  distant  when  it 
was  to  be  seen  how  "  earnest  embracing 
of  religion  "  could  join  two  countries  "  straitly 
together." 

Thus  far  we  have  seen  but  the  dim  begin- 
nings of  the  movement  out  of  which  English 
Nonconformity  ultimately  grew.  The  embers 
were  being  kindled  which  were  afterwards 
to  burst  into  a  great  conflagration.  The 
ideas  were  coming  to  birth  which  were  one 
day  to  break  forth  into  startling  action. 
But  the  process  was  an  exceedingly  slow 
one,  and  it  is  only  too  easy  to  overestimate 
the  importance  of  the  various  factors  that 
were  at  work.  For  example,  the  debt  of 
England  and  Scotland  to  Continental  Pro- 
testantism is  often  exaggerated.  No  doubt 
the  same  causes  were  at  work  in  both  cases, 
but  they  worked  side  by  side.  And  it  was 
not,  as  we  have  seen,  until  things  were  well 
advanced  in  this  country  that  the  influence 


22  '  NONCONFORMITY 

of  the  German  Reformation  began  to  make 
itself  felt.     Then,  again,  merely  political  con- 
siderations played  but  a  very  small  part  at 
first  in  determining  the  minds  of  men  towards 
reform,  though  they  had   much  to  do- with 
shaping  the  form  which  the  movement  after- 
wards   assumed.     Among   the    chief    factors 
in  the  situation  were  the  corruption  of  the 
clergy  and  the  tyranny  of  the  Church  on  the 
one  hand,  and,  on  the  other,  the  new  know- 
ledge of  the  Bible,  which  gave  men  what  they 
believed  to  be  a  divine   standard  by  which 
they   could   judge   the   ecclesiastical   system 
and  persons  of  their  day.     From  the  writings 
of  Langland  and  Chaucer  we  can  understand 
something  of  the  condition  of  the  Church  and 
of  the  feelings  of  the  laity  towards  it  in  the 
earliest  days  when  the  new  spirit  made  itself 
felt.     This  feeling  was  greatly  intensified  by 
persecution,  and,  by  the  time  of  Elizabeth, 
had  become  with  many  people  an  obsession. 
But  it  must  not  be  forgotten  that  the  Church 
was  never  wholly  corrupt.     There  were  great 
and  crying  abuses,  but  even  among  monks 
and  nuns  many  holy  men  and  women  were 
to  be  found,  and  the  old  religion  died  very 
hard.     Had  it  not  been  for  the  fear  of  Spain 
in    later    times.    Protestantism    in    England 
would  have  been  far  more  difficult  to  establish ; 
and  the  partial  failure  of  Puritanism  shows 
how   deeply   Catholicism  was  rooted   in  the 
affections  of  Englishmen.     But  with  all  their 
love  for  the  ancient  Church  they  were  not 


THE  BEGINNINGS  23 

able  to  withstand  the  appeal  of  the  Scriptures. 
The  contrast  between  the  religion  of  the  New 
Testament  and  that  of  the  Church  was  too 
violent.  To  the  hard  common  sense  of 
Englishmen  and  the  logical  acuteness  of 
Scotchmen  these  two  ideals  seemed  im- 
possible of  reconciliation.  It  was  this  feeling 
which  gave  sting  and  force  to  the  preaching 
of  Knox,  and  when  for  a  time  Englishmen 
became,  as  they  were  called,  the  people  of 
the  Book,  the  fate  of  Romanism  in  this 
country  was  sealed. 

For  the  moment,  however,  the  conflict  was 
between  the  Roman  Church  and  the  new 
spirit.  The  first  result  of  this  was  to  substi- 
tute only  an  Anglican  Church  for  the  Roman, 
and  the  Supremacy  of  the  Crown  for  that  of 
the  Pope.  In  Scotland,  indeed,  something 
was  being  heard  of  the  Crown  rights  of 
Jesus,  but  in  England  there  was  as  yet  little 
or  no  objection  to  the  new  order.  But  the 
very  principles  that  produced  Protestantism 
were  capable  of  a  wider  and  more  logical 
application.  We  have  yet  to  see  how  Pro- 
testantism in  its  turn  produced  Puritanism, 
and  how  out  of  Puritanism  grew  that  Separat- 
ism which  is  the  root  and  parent  of  Noncon- 
formity in  the  strict  and  modern  sense  of  the 
term.  The  Nonconformist  spirit  was,  as  we 
have  seen,  directly  anticipated  in  Wyclif's 
doctrine  of  Divine  dominion,  which  gave 
paramount  importance  to  man's  individual 
relations  with  God  and  made  them  regulative 


24  NONCONFORMITY 

of  all  else.  In  stating  this  as  he  did, 
Wyclif  was  in  advance  of  his  day,  and  it 
is  not  surprising  that  the  ideal  he  held  up 
never  really  took  shape  in  fact.  But  the 
spirit  which  animated  him  and  his  followers, 
the  Lollards,  was  never  quite  crushed  even 
by  the  organisations  through  which  it  sought 
to  find  utterance.  Vv^hile  for  a  time  the 
religious  struggle  seems  to  be  that  of  Church 
against  Church  it  is  really  more.  The 
importance  of  these  early  days  for  the 
history  of  Nonconformity  lies  in  the  fact 
that  we  can  see  there  writ  large,  and  in 
crude  and  simple  form,  the  principles  which 
afterwards  became  so  potent.  They  are 
thrown  into  bold  relief  over  against  the 
elaborate  organisation  which  they  were  to 
combat,  and  they  stand  as  representing  the 
very  life  and  soul  of  religion,  which  requires 
to  grow  its  own  body,  rather  than  fit  itself 
into  one  ready  made. 


CHAPTER  II 

THE  ANGLICAN  SETTLEMENT  AND  THE  PURITAN 
REACTION 

It  is  not  without  just  pride  that  Englishmen 
look  back  to  the  "  spacious  days  "  of  Queen 
Elizabeth  as  the  most  formative  period  in 


THE  ANGLICAN  SETTLEMENT     25 

their  national  history.  The  time  was  again 
one  of  extraordinary  awakening — political, 
intellectual  and  religious.  It  saw  the  begin- 
ning of  our  modern  world,  and,  both  in 
controversy  and  in  constructive  statesman- 
ship, it  laid  down  lines  which  were  to  be 
followed  for  many  a  long  day.  The  discovery 
of  the  New  World,  the  expansion  of  com- 
mercial relations,  and  the  successful  war  with 
Spain,  were  all  epoch-making  events.  Add 
to  these  the  intellectual  revolution  represented 
by  the  names  of  Shakespeare  and  Bacon,  and 
the  religious  revolution  marked  by  the 
Anglican  settlement  and  the  rise  of  Puritanism 
and  Separatism,  and  we  have  a  series  of 
achievements  unmatched  in  any  other  period 
of  our  island  story.  It  is,  of  course,  with  the 
religious  and  ecclesiastical  situation  that  we 
are  here  chiefly  concerned,  and  we  have 
to  take  note  of  other  features  of  the  time  only 
as  they  bear  on  our  main  subject. 

Elizabeth  came  to  the  throne  in  the  full 
tide  of  the  reaction  against  Roman  claims 
and  policy.  The  Marian  persecutions  on  the 
one  hand,  and  the  threatening  attitude  of 
Spain  on  the  other,  had  thoroughly  alarmed 
the  English  people,  and  the  Queen,  knowing 
the  uncertainty  of  her  own  position,  shared 
their  fears.  She  v/as  herself  an  opportunist, 
having  no  real  religious  convictions  and  but 
little  regard  for  truth.  But  she  had  a  genuine 
love  for  her  country,  and  the  sole  aim  of  her 
policy    was    to    maintain     her    throne    and 


26  NONCONFORMITY 

strengthen    and    consolidate    the    power    of 
England.     She    could    assume    many    parts 
herself,  and  was  an  adept  at  playing  off  her 
opponents  one  against  another.    But  she  never 
lost  sight  of  her  main  purpose,  and  it  -must 
be  admitted  that,  through  all  the  tortuous 
paths  of  her  policy,  it  was  steadily  advanced. 
Among  the  earliest  efforts  of  her  reign  the 
Anglican    settlement    must    be    reckoned    as 
the  most  successful  and  the  most  important. 
The  word  settlement,  however,  can  only  be 
justly  used  by  those  who  look  back  on  the 
obscure    and    almost    fortuitous    happenings 
of  the  time  in  the  light  of  their  results.     But 
the   fact   remains   that   the   Queen   and   her 
Parliament  secured  a  really  durable  arrange- 
ment,  against  the  will   of    the  ecclesiastics, 
and  over  the  heads  of  the  people.     Elizabeth 
had  astutely  declined  to  assume  her  father's 
position  as  head  of  the  Church,  knowing  it  to 
be  as  offensive  to  the  Calvinists  as  to  the 
Bomans  themselves.     But   Parliament   com- 
promised for  her  on  the  phrase,  that  she  was 
the  only  Supreme  Governor  of  the  realm  as 
well   in  all   spiritual   or  ecclesiastical  things 
or  causes  as  in  temporal,  and  that  no  foreign 
prince   or   prelate   had   any   ecclesiastical   or 
spiritual    authority    within     her    dominions. 
At  the  same  time  they  revived  a  statute  of 
Plenry  VIII  proclaiming  the  King  as  head  of 
the  Church,  and  declaring  that  by  the  word 
of  God  all  ecclesiastical  jurisdiction  flows  from 
him.     This  famous  Act  of  Supremacy  was  only 


THE  ANGLICAN  SETTLEMENT     27 

secured  after  long  debate,  and  was  followed, 
in  the  same  year  (1559),  by  the  first  of  a  suc- 
cession of  Acts  of  Uniformity,  the  effect  of  N[ 
which  has  been  to  produce  strife  and  division  ' 
in  English  Christendom  from  those  days 
until  now.  The  basis  of  these  measures  was 
the  Prayer  Book  of  1552,  which  was  but 
slightly  altered  to  meet  the  needs  of  the 
moment.  The  use  of  it  was  made  compulsory 
in  order  to  secure  uniformity  of  prayer  and 
service,  and  of  the  administration  of  the 
sacraments.  To  make  use  of  any  other  form 
of  worship  was  made  a  penal  offence.  At  the 
same  time  the  Act  required  that  every  man 
should  be  present  every  Sunday  at  the  legal 
services  thus  set  up.  All  this  was  distinctly 
the  work  of  the  Queen  and  Parliament,  and 
was  accomplished  in  defiance  of  the  Church 
and  her  representatives.  Neither  the  bishops 
nor  the  clergy  consented  to  it,  but  they 
were  powerless  in  the  matter.  The  Bishop 
of  Chester  voiced  their  feelings  when  he 
said,  "As  to  religion,  I  humbly  conceive  that 
it  is  a  subject  altogether  foreign  to  the  business 
of  Parliament."  "The  body  of  Parliament 
consists  mostly  of  the  temporal  nobility,  and 
the  commons,  which,  tho  persons  of  great 
judgment  and  learning  in  civil  matters,  yet 
divinity  is  none  of  their  profession.  The 
exposition  of  the  Scriptures,  the  reading 
of  the  ancients,  has  been  none  of  their  em- 
ployment. These  things  considered,  they 
cgjinot  be  supposed  to  be  rightly  qualijQed 


28  NONCONFORMITY 

to  pronounce  upon  the  doctrines  and  practice 
of  the  Church.  Neither,  indeed,  do  these 
things  belong  to  their  function  or  lie  within 
their  character."  This  bold  protest  was 
quite  unavailing.  All  the  bishops  who  re- 
fused the  oath  were  deprived,  and  with  them 
over  two  hundred  of  the  clergy.  But  for  a 
long  time  neither  the  Act  of  Supremacy  nor 
the  Act  of  Uniformity  were  at  all  generally 
observed.  It  was  part  of  the  clever  policy 
of  the  Queen  and  her  advisers  to  be  lenient 
with  the  Roman  Catholics  and  not  to  press 
the  Protestant  position  too  strongly  at  first. 
It  was  not  until  1571  that  subscription  to  the 
Thirty-nine  Articles  was  enforced.  This  re- 
quired a  renunciation  of  the  Romish  creed, 
and  was  a  point  strongly  in  favour  of  the 
Puritans.  It  had  the  effect  of  rounding  off 
the  revolution  in  religion,  by  requiring  the 
English  clergy  to  renounce  not  only  the 
jurisdiction  of  the  Pope,  but  the  creed  of 
the  Roman  Church. 

But,  during  the  whole  time  that  this  was 
going  on,  feeling  among  the  people  was 
developing  more  rapidly  than  either  at  the 
Court  or  in  Parliament.  Many  of  the  livings 
made  vacant  under  the  Act  of  Uniformity  had 
been  filled  by  men  who  desired  a  more 
drastic  reformation  than  the  Queen  was 
ready  to  allow,  and  men  of  this  temper  also 
secured  a  much  larger  representation  in  the 
Houses  of  Convocation  than  their  strength 
in    the    country    warranted.     By   this    time 


THE  ANGLICAN  SETTLEMENT      29 

the  name  Puritan  was  in  general  use  to 
designate  those  within  the  Anglican  com- 
munion who  sought  a  simpler  faith  and 
service  than  was  allowed  for  in  the  new 
regulations.  Many  of  these  took  the  law  into 
their  own  hands,  and,  in  the  general  disorder 
of  the  times,  thought  themselves  justified  in 
arranging  matters  of  ritual  to  suit  themselves. 
Among  the  irregularities  noted  at  the  time 
were,  saying  the  prayers  in  the  chancel  or 
in  the  pulpit  ;  preaching  and  administering 
the  communion  without  a  surplice  ;  placing 
the  communion  table  in  the  body  of  the 
church  or  in  the  middle  of  the  chancel  ; 
allowing  the  communion  to  be  received 
standing  or  sitting,  and  baptizing  without  the 
sign  of  the  cross.  The  prevalence  of  such 
practices  led  to  increased  efforts  to  enforce 
the  Act  of  Uniformity,  and  these  in  their 
turn  to  a  more  open  disregard  of  it.  In 
consequence,  many  more  clergy  were  deprived, 
and  not  a  few  churches,  especially  in  London, 
were  left  without  pastors.  It  was  in  this  way 
that  Puritanism  led  inevitably  to  Separatism. 
The  great  body  of  the  Puritans  had  no  wish 
to  sever  themselves  from  the  national  Church. 
They  were  merely  concerned  to  carry  out  the 
Protestant  settlement  to  its  logical  con- 
clusions. 

From  this  time  forward,  therefore,  the 
Protestant  movement  in  this  country  followed 
a  double  course,  and  developed  along  two 
parallel  lines.     On  the   one  hand  we  have 


30  NONCONFORMITY 

to  note  the  rise  and  growth  of  Puritanism 
within  the  National  Church,  and  on  the  other 
is  to  be  found  the  beginning  of  Nonconformity 
proper,  in  the  setting  up  of  Httle  communities 
of  "separated"  Christians  outside  of  and  in 
direct  opposition  to  the  Church  of  England. 
As  regards  the  former  of  these,  we  must  note 
that  the  term  Puritan  did  not  come  into 
general  use  until  about  the  year  1564,  and  that 
it  was  a  vague  popular  name,  or  even  nick- 
name, for  a  moral  and  religious  temper  of 
mind,  rather  than  for  a  definite  organisation. 
It  was  not  until  a  much  later  period  that  it 
came  to  stand  for  the  political  party  which 
attempted  to  assert  the  rights  and  liberties  of 
the  people  against  the  usurpations  of  the 
Crown.  For  a  long  time  the  work  and 
character  of  the  Puritans  were  chiefly  known 
through  the  writings  of  their  opponents,  and 
were  seen  in  caricature  rather  than  in  the 
light  of  facts.  This  has  led  to  no  little 
prejudice  against  them,  a  prejudice  for  which 
history  does  not  give  any  real  justification. 
Their  leaders,  in  the  period  with  which  we 
are  dealing,  were  men  who  believed  pro- 
foundly in  the  sovereignty  of  God  and  in  the 
authority  of  Scripture,  who  practised  a  severe 
morality,  and  were  deeply  attached  to  the 
cause  of  civil  and  religious  liberty.  Some 
of  them  were  among  the  most  learned  and 
enlightened  men  of  their  day.  They  were 
to  be  found  in  both  the  Universities,  and  were 
by   no   means   antagonistic   to   culture   and 


THE  ANGLICAN  SETTLEMENT     31 

refinement  of  life.  The  strictness  of  their 
morals  and  the  preciseness  of  their  manners 
and  dress  became  a  laughing-stock  to  the 
men  of  a  dissolute  and  luxurious  Court,  but 
these  things  represented  a  healthy  reaction 
against  certain  vicious  tendencies  of  the  time, 
and,  if  they  were  sometimes  carried  to  an 
extreme  of  fanaticism,  in  their  inception,  at 
least,  they  had  no  little  justification.  If  the 
Puritans  seemed  sometimes  to  lay  undue 
stress  on  minor  matters  of  ritual  and  ceremony, 
this  was  only  because  they  saw  that  these 
things  involved  principles  the  maintenance  of 
which  was  to  them  a  matter  of  life  and  death. 
The  first  definite  assertion  of  the  Puritan 
position  was  brought  about  by  the  efforts 
of  the  Court  to  enforce  the  Act  of  Uniformity. 
In  the  meeting  of  Convocation  summoned  ~ 
during  Elizabeth's  second  Parliament  in  1563, 
the  question  of  vestments  at  once  came  to  the  ■ 
front.  A  Petition  was  presented  by  a  number 
of  leading  Church  dignitaries  pleading  that 
the  posture  of  kneeling  at  the  Lord's  Supper 
should  not  be  insisted  upon,  that  the  sign 
of  the  cross  in  baptism  should  be  disused, 
that  the  wearing  of  surplices  and  copes 
should  cease,  and  that  a  "  comely  side 
garment  "  should  take  the  place  of  all  other 
vestments.  By  a  majority  of  only  one. 
Convocation  decided  to  make  no  alteration 
in  the  existing  order,  and  the  Puritans  were 
defeated.  Many  of  them,  however,  declined  *n 
to  be  bound  by  the  action  of  Convocation,     \ 


i 


32  NONCONFORMITY 

and  irregularities  in  the  matter  of  dress  and 
ritual  became  more  and  more  common. 
But  the  Queen  ''  was  unable  to  endure  the 
least  alteration  in  the  matter  of  religion," 
and  ordered  Archbishop  Parker  rigorously 
to  enforce  the  law.  Parker  carried  out  his 
orders  by  issuing,  on  his  own  authority,  a 
series  of  "  Advertisements "  commanding 
the  use  of  the  cope  at  the  communion  in 
cathedrals  and  collegiate  churches,  and  the 
surplice  with  sleeves  in  parish  churches. 
These  "  Advertisements  "  the  Puritans,  led  by 
the  President  of  Magdalen  College,  Oxford, 
and  the  Dean  of  Christchurch,  stoutly  re- 
sisted. Their  action  indicated  a  growing 
aversion  to  Romish  habits  and  practices 
both  among  the  clergy  and  laity,  and,  as  the 
result  of  it,  both  at  Oxford  and  Cambridge, 
many  men  were  deprived  of  their  livings  and 
jsome  were  imprisoned.  Matters  reached  a 
f  crisis  in  London  in  the  year  1566,  when 
f  Parker  and  the  Bishop  of  London  cited  the 
I  clergy  of  the  city  to  appear  before  them 
*^at  Lambeth.  About  a  hundred  and  ten 
presented  themselves,  and  were  confronted 
with  a  minister  properly  attired  in  the 
prescribed    vestments.     The    Chancellor    of 

>the  diocese  then  spoke  :  "  My  masters  and 
the  ministers  of  London,  the  Council's  pleasure 
is  that  ye  strictly  keep  the  unity  of  apparel  like 
to  this  man  as  ye  see  him :  that  is,  a  square 
cap,  a  scholar's  gown  priestlike,  or  tippet, 
and   in   the   Church   a   linen   surplice ;     and 


THE  ANGLICAN  SETTLEMENT    33 

inviolably  observe  the  Book  of  Common 
Prayer,  and  the  Queen's  Majesty's  injunctions 
and  the  Book  of  Convocation.  Ye  that  will 
presently  subscribe  write  volo.  Those  that 
will  not  subscribe  write  nolo.  Be  brief, 
make  no  words."  When  the  names  were 
called,  thirty-seven  refused  to  conform,  "  of 
which  number  were  the  best  and  some 
preachers,"  says  Parker.  But  their  good 
qualities  did  not  save  them,  for  they  were 
summarily  suspended.  They  suffered  with 
a  clear  conscience,  and  a  full  recognition  of  the 
consequences.  Some  of  them  left  the  ministry 
for  various  scholastic  pursuits,  some  became 
chaplains  in  the  families  of  Puritan  gentry, 
some  joined  the  Presbyterians  in  Scotland, 
and  some  emigrated.  Five  persisted  in  preach- 
ing, and  were  committed  by  the  Queen' r. 
Council  as  prisoners  in  the  private  custody 
of  various  bishops. 

When  it  became  evident  that  there  was  to 
be  no  relaxation  of  the  Act  of  Uniformity, 
certain  of  the  deprived  ministers  and  other 
Puritans  held  a  conference  in  London  on  the 
question  of  the  lawfulness  and  necessity  of 
separation  from  the  Established  Church. 
After  much  debate,  an  agreement  was  arrived 
at  in  the  following  terms :  "  That  since  they 
could  not  have  the  word  of  God  preached, 
nor  the  Sacraments  administered,  without 
idolatrous  gear  :  and  since  there  had  been 
a  separate  congregation  in  London  and 
another  in  Geneva  in  Mary's  time,  using  a 

B 


84  NONCONFORMITY 

book  and  order  of  Service  approved  by 
Calvin,  which  was  free  from  the  supersti- 
tions of  the  English  service :  therefore  it 
was  their  duty  in  their  present  circumstances 
to  break  off  from  the  public  Churches  and 
to  assemble  as  they  had  opportunity  in 
private  houses,  or  elsewhere,  to  worship 
God  in  a  manner  that  might  not  offend 
against  the  light  of  their  consciences."  This 
statement  marks  a  parting  of  the  ways.  It 
was  the  beginning  of  the  Separatist  move- 
ment, which  henceforth  advanced  along 
the  lines  thus  laid  down.  There  was  still  a 
large  leaven  of  Puritanism  within  the  Church 
of  England,  and  many  who  remained  Non- 
conforming members  of  the  Church.  But  along- 
side of  them,  there  were  others  who  at  once 
carried  their  convictions  to  a  logical  issue, 
and  began  to  form  Churches  on  another  model 
than  that  of  the  old  Church  of  Rome.  One 
of  the  earliest  of  these  "  gathered  Churches  " 
was  formed  in  June  1567,  and  met  at  Plum- 
bers Hall  in  the  city  of  London.  Its  meetings 
were  broken  up  by  the  authorities,  and  when 
its  leaders  were  summoned  before  Grindal, 
who  was  then  Archbishop,  they  defended 
themselves  in  the  following  memorable 
words :  "So  long  as  we  might  have  the 
word  freely  preached  and  the  sacraments 
administered  without  the  preferring  of  idola- 
trous gear  about  it,  we  never  assembled 
together  in  houses.  But  when  it  came  to  this, 
that  all  our  preachers  were  displaced  by  your 


THE  ANGLICAN  SETTLEMENT    35 

law,  so  that  we  could  hear  none  of  them  in 
any  Church  by  the  space  of  seven  or  eight 
weeks,  and  were  troubled  and  commanded 
by  your  courts  from  day  to  day  for  not 
coming  to  our  parish  Churches,  then  we  be- 
thought us  what  were  best  to  do.  And  now 
if  from  the  word  of  God,  you  can  prove  we 
are  wrong  we  will  yield  to  you  and  do  open 
penance  at  St.  Paul's  Cross  :  if  not,  we  will 
stand  to  it  by  the  grace  of  God."  These 
words  show  very  clearly  that  the  Noncon- 
formity of  the  early  Puritans  was  altogether 
against  the  grain.  There  is  no  trace  in  them 
of  the  dissidence  of  dissent.  They  take 
their  stand  reluctantly  and  under  the  pressure 
of  conscience.  They  can  do  no  other.  Their 
estrangement  from  the  Church  was  brought 
about  very  gradually,  and  was  the  result  of 
the  intolerance  of  the  authorities,  and  especi- 
ally of  the  Queen,  rather  than  of  their  own 
contumacy.  They  would  have  remained 
within  the  Church  had  it  been  made  at  all 
possible  for  them  to  do  so  with  a  clear  con- 
science. 

The  next  act  in  the  drama  now  unfolding 
itself    was    the    publication    of    the    Puritan  *1  # 
manifesto  called  the  "First  Admonition."  This     >^ 
was  the   result   of   a   Conference   in   London       j 
in  the  year  1572,  and  it  still  further  defines 
the  Puritan   position   at    this    period.      The 
Admonition  presents  for  the  godly  considera- 
tion  of   Parliament   the   changes   which   are 
necessary  in  order  to  secure  a  right  ministry 

B  2 


36  NONCONFORMITY 

and  a  right  government  of  the  Church.  It  is 
contended  that  the  old  Romanist  ministry 
of  Henry  and  Mary  should  be  removed,  and 
should  give  place  to  a  ministry  elected  by 
the  elders,  and  with  the  consent  of  the  whole 

/v  Church.  The  minister  should  be  called,  and 
not  thrust  on  a  congregation  from  without. 

A^The  only  true  officers  of  a  Church  are  ministers 
or  pastors,  elders  and  deacons,  and  these 
should  take  the  place  of  the  existing  hier- 
archy. Election  by  the  congregation  should 
take  the  place  of  the  Bishop's  authority,  and 
the    Church    should    be    purged    of    Roman 

I  practices  and  be  remodelled  on  the  basis  of 
\i    the  Reformed  Churches  of  Scotland  and  the 

r  Continent.  This  Admonition  produced  con- 
siderable stir,  and  at  once  passed  through 
several  editions.  Its  authors  were  com- 
mitted to  Newgate,  and  the  task  of  answering 
them  was  entrusted  to  Whit  gift.  He,  in 
conjunction  with  two  Bishops,  produced  a 
defence  of  the  Church  of  England  based  on 
the  contention  that  what  is  Apostolic  is  not 
necessarily  binding,  and  that  what  is  Roman 
is  not  necessarily  to  be  excluded  from 
Anglicanism.  The  answer  brought  forth  a 
second  Admonition  from  the  pen  of  Thomas 
Cartwright,  which  contained  an  elaborate 
plan  of  the  Reformed  Church  as  he  would 
have  it.  There  was  to  be  an  elected  ministry 
in  which  all  were  equal,  and  government  of 
the  Church  by  conferences,  synods  and  local 
consistories,  which   latter   should   have   the 


THE  ANGLICAN  SETTLEMENT    87 

power  of  excommunication  and  super- 
vision of  morals,  and  should  be  able  to  send 
representatives  to  provincial  synods  or 
councils.  The  plan  of  the  Church  sketched 
in  these  Admonitions  was  heartily  con- 
demned by  the  authorities,  but  found  no 
little  favour  both  among  the  clergy  of  the  better 
sort  and  the  laity.  There  is  evidence  that, 
in  not  a  few  counties,  voluntary  associations 
of  the  kind  here  indicated  were  established 
for  the  reformation  of  manners  and  religion. 
At  the  same  time,  the  religious  exercises 
called  Prophesyings  were  becoming  com- 
mon, and  went  some  way  to  meet  the  need 
for  preaching  and  religious  instruction  which 
was  everywhere  felt.  In  spite  of  all  efforts 
to  suppress  them,  these  innovations  were 
in  great  favour  w^ith  the  people,  and  did 
much  to  bring  Puritanism  into  popularity. 

Under  the  influence  of  Cartwright,  whose 
lectures  and  sermons  at  Cambridge  had 
given  him  great  weight  in  their  counsels, 
the  Puritans  within  the  Church  now  made 
it  their  policy  to  attempt  to  substitute 
Presbytery  for  Episcopacy.  The  idea  was 
not  so  quixotic  as  it  might  seem,  for  it  must 
be  remembered  that,  once  the  severance  from 
Rome  had  taken  place,  the  whole  system 
of  the  English  Church  was  in  the  melting- 
pot.  The  retention  of  the  Episcopate  was 
the  result  of  following  the  line  of  least  re- 
sistance. There  was  no  divine  right  about 
their  position  at  all,  and  we  find  Dr.  Ham- 


38  NONCONFORMITY 

mond,  the  Chancellor  of  the  diocese  of  London, 
writing  to  Lord  Burleigh  in  the  year  1588  as 
follows  :  "  The  Bishops  of  our  realm  do  not 
(so  far  as  I  ever  yet  heard),  nor  may  not, 
claim  to  themselves  any  other  authority 
than  is  given  them  by  the  statute  of  the 
25th  of  King  Henry  VIII,  recited  in  the  first 
year  of  Her  Majesty's  reign,  neither  is  it 
reasonable  they  should  make  other  claim, 
for  if  it  had  pleased  Her  Majesty  with  the 
wisdom  of  the  realm  to  have  used  no  bishops 
at  all,  we  could  not  have  complained  justly 
of  any  defect  in  our  Church."  With  such 
ideas  as  these  in  vogue,  it  is  not  to  be  wondered 
at  if  many  of  the  Puritans  dreamed  of  a 
Reformed  Church  in  England,  after  the 
model  of  the  non-Episcopalian  Churches  of 
the  Continent  and  the  Presbyterian  Churches 
of  Scotland.  In  1572  a  Church  after  the 
Presbyterian  model  was  established  at  Wands- 
worth, and  a  few  years  later  Presbyterianism 
was  definitely  set  up  in  the  Channel  Islands 
to  meet  the  needs  of  the  numerous  French 
Protestant  refugees  to  be  found  there.  These 
years  may  be  said  to  mark  the  birth  of  the 
Presbyterian  Church  in  this  country,  although 
there  was  as  yet  no  very  definite  severance 
from  the  Church  of  England.  We  have  to 
note,  however,  the  rise  of  a  Presbyterian 
wing  of  the  Puritans,  a  movement  which  was 
very  fruitful  in  results  at  a  later  period. 

Meanwhile,  in  the  country  at  large,  Puri- 
tanism was  increasing  and  consolidating  its 


THE  ANGLICAN  SETTLEMENT    39 

forces.  Many  of  the  men  whose  voices  had 
been  silenced  continued  to  preach  by  means  of 
the  pen.  It  was  the  age  of  the  pamphleteer, 
and  there  appeared  from  printing  presses  in 
various  places  large  numbers  of  fugitive 
writings,  which  exposed,  in  no  measured 
terms,  the  condition  of  things  within  the 
Church,  and  advocated  a  return  to  a  simpler 
and  more  scriptural  order.  But  such  a 
propaganda  was  only  carried  out  with  very 
great  difficulty  and  danger.  The  government 
had  all  printing  presses  under  observation  and 
limited  their  number.  None  were  to  be 
set  up  outside  London,  Oxford  and  Cambridge, 
and  all  books  were  to  be  censored  by  the 
Archbishop  and  the  Bishop  of  London,  or 
some  one  whom  they  appointed.  In  spite  of 
these  regulations,  however,  the  Puritans 
succeeded  in  setting  up  printing  presses  of 
their  own,  and  often  evaded  the  authorities 
by  moving  them  rapidly  from  place  to  place. 
Their  writings  were  eagerly  bought  and 
read,  and  were  of  undoubted  influence  in 
spreading  the  movement.  Among  the  most 
important  of  these  tracts  for  the  times  were 
Diotrephes,  or  The  State  of  the  Church  of 
England  laid  open  in  a  Conference,  by  John 
Udall,  vicar  of  Kingston-on-Thames,  and 
the  famous  Martin  Marprelate  letters,  the 
authorship  of  which  will  probably  always 
remain  a  mystery.  These  were  issued  by  the 
same  printer,  one  Waldegrave,  and  created 
an  immense  sensation.     They  ridiculed  the 


40  NONCONFORMITY 

pretensions  of  the  clergy,  and  attacked  the 
whole  hierarchical  system  with  bitter  satire 
and  burning  invective.  They  were  coarse 
and  popular  writings,  but  never  quite 
descended  to  the  scurrility  of  some  of  the 
/  opponents  of  Puritanism.  Those  chiefly  con- 
I  cerned  in  issuing  the  Marprelate  series  were 
H^Job  Throckmorton,  a  Puritan  squire  of 
'  Warwickshire ;  John  Penry,  the  Welshman  ; 
and  Waldegrave  and  his  successor,  John 
Hodgkins.  The  work  of  these  men  roused 
the  clerical  party  to  keen  resentment  and 
reprisals.  By  the  order  of  Whitgift,  Udall 
was  imprisoned  until  he  died,  the  printing 
presses  were  seized,  and  a  ban  was  put  on 
every  kind  of  Puritan  writing.  These  measures 
only  served  to  stir  to  greater  activity  and  to 
drive  still  further  away  from  the  Church  of 
England  the  men  who  could  not  subscribe 
to  the  terms  of  her  rulers.  To  an  increasing 
number  of  these  it  became  manifest  that  no 
terms  were  possible  with  the  Church  under  the 
existing  regime.  The  longer  Elizabeth  lived 
the  more  insistent  became  her  claims  to 
absolute  authority  in  things  ecclesiastical ; 
and,  in  urging  these  claims,  she  found  in 
Whitgift  a  fit  tool  for  her  purpose.  So  far  as 
outward  appearance  went,  she  won  the 
fight  against  the  Puritans  all  along  the  line. 
Their  leaders  were  deprived  of  their  livings, 
and  great  multitudes  of  them  were  imprisoned. 
They  had  to  carry  on  their  propaganda  in 
secret ;    their  books  were  confiscated  ;    and 


THE  ANGLICAN  SETTLEMENT    41 

many  of  them  went  in  peril  of  their  lives. 
Here  and  there  men  and  women  were  burned 
for  their  faith,  and  in  Essex  alone  some  fifty 
preachers  were  silenced  or  deprived.  Among 
those  suspended  was  the  excellent  George 
Gifford  of  Maiden,  and  his  case  may  be  cited 
as  a  typical  one.  Strype,  who  was  certainly 
no  friend  of  the  Puritans  in  general,  says 
of  him :  "  He  was  valued  much  for  the  good 
reformation  he  had  made  in  that  market 
town  by  his  preaching  :  whereby  notorious 
sins  reigned  before  his  coming  ;  and  others 
had  been  by  his  diligence  nourished  and 
strengthened  in  grace  and  virtue  (as  the 
inhabitants  in  a  petition  to  the  Bishop  in 
his  behalf  had  set  forth  at  large),  and  that  in 
his  life  he  was  modest,  discreet  and  unre- 
provable  :  that  he  never  used  conventicle  but 
ever  preached  and  catechised  in  the  Church." 
Nothing  could  be  more  contrary  to  the  fact 
than  the  too  common  assumption  that  these 
early  Puritans  were  vulgar  and  turbulent 
men  who  resisted  authority  from  mere  love  of 
strife.  They  were,  on  the  other  hand,  the 
best  of  the  clergy,  the  men  who  preached 
and  were  at  pains  to  teach  the  people  and 
carry  out  the  duties  of  their  sacred  office. 
It  is  among  their  opponents  and  persecutors 
that  we  have  to  look  for  unlearned  and 
ignorant  clergy,  who  neglected  their  cures, 
and  preyed  on  the  flock  instead  of  feeding  it. 
All  the  available  testimony  goes  to  show 
that   the   deprivations   and   persecutions   of 


42  NONCONFORMITY 

Elizabeth's  time  really  injured  the  Church  by- 
stripping  her  of  her  best  workers,  and  sub- 
stituting for  them  men  who  were  a  ready 
prey  for  the  wit  and  scorn  of  writers  like 
Marprelate.  The  fact  was  abundantly  re- 
cognised at  the  time  and  w^ent  far  to  confirm 
the  Puritans  in  their  convictions,  and  to  drive 
many  of  them  to  carry  out  their  position  to 
its  logical  conclusions  by  definitely  separating 
themselves  from  a  Church  with  which  they  had 
so  little  in  common.  Even  at  this  early  period 
their  main  object  in  doing  so  was  to  secure 
freedom  to  exercise  their  religion  according 
to  their  consciences  and  to  purify  the  Church  of 
abuses.  For  the  most  part  these  men  were  with- 
in the  Church  at  the  period  we  have  reached, 
being  either  Puritans  proper  who  accepted 
Episcopacy  but  would  reform  it,  or  Presby- 
terians who  saw  no  hope  of  reform  under 
an  Episcopal  system.  Outside  the  Church, 
Puritanism  tended  to  some  form  of  In- 
dependency, the  development  of  which  we 
have  yet  to  trace.  As  to  their  general  attitude, 
the  Puritans  are  often  blamed  for  being  too 
scrupulous  about  small  matters,  such  as 
vestments.  In  their  eyes,  however,  these 
were  important  enough  because  they  involved 
principles.  When  principles  were  at  stake 
they  had  a  very  keen  sense  of  duty,  and  the 
courage  to  act  up  to  it. 


THE  SEPARATISTS  43 

CHAPTER  III 

THE   SEPARATISTS 

Puritanism,  as  we  have  known  it  so  far, 
was  rather  a  spirit  or  temper  of  mind 
than  a  definite  movement  or  organisation. 
It  represented  the  Protestant  tendency  within 
the  Church  of  England,  and  it  was  only  a 
few  of  its  extreme  advocates  who  contem- 
plated the  setting  up  of  Churches  outside  the 
Anglican  pale.  For  many  years  to  come  the" 
great  majority  of  the  Puritans  protested 
against  being  regarded  either  as  Separatists 
or  Anabaptists.  They  were  nonconforming^ 
members  of  the  Church  of  England,  in  the 
sense  that  they  accepted  the  ordinances  of 
the  Church,  and  only  separated  themselves 
from  what  they  regarded  as  its  corruptions 
and  disorders.  When,  however,  it  became 
only  too  apparent  that  the  Court  and  the 
Bishops  were  not  of  their  mind  in  regard  to 
these  corruptions,  and  were  prepared  to 
enforce  them  upon  all  alike,  an  increasing 
number  of  the  Puritans  found  themselves 
driven  to  reconsider  their  position,  and  sought 
a  purer  form  of  Church  government  and 
worship,  some  across  the  seas  in  Holland 
and  afterwards  in  America,  and  others  by 
setting  up  separated  Churches  at  home. 
These  Churches  took  naturally  what  is  known 
-as  a  congregational   way,   and   became  the 


44  NONCONFORMITY 

forerunners  of  the  Baptist  and  Congregational 
denominations  of  modern  times. 

The  first,  and  in  some  respects  the  greatest, 
of  the  Separatists  was  Robert  Browne,  a 
Cambridge  man  of  good  family,  who,  along 
with   his   friend   and   fellow-student    Robert 

C Harrison,  founded  at  Norwich  what  may  be 
regarded  as  the  first  Congregational  Church 
outside  London  in  1580  or  1581.  Browne 
has  been  the  subject  of  much  controversy. 
He  was  certainly  no  hero.  When  an  old 
man  he  recanted  under  pressure,  and  took 
office  in  the  Church  of  England.  His  fol- 
lowers naturally  enough  repudiated  the  name 
Brownist,  which  was  often  flung  at  them 
almost  as  a  term  of  reproach.  But  the  man 
was,  in  every  sense,  a  pioneer.  He  saw 
clearly  what  he  wanted,  and  said  clearly 
what  he  meant.  His  books  laid  the  founda- 
tions of  the  Congregational  system,  and  he 
deserves  all  credit  for  the  work  he  did.  No 
doubt  he  owed  a  good  deal  to  the  Anabaptists 
of  Holland,  for  it  is  now  proved  that  he  had 
visited  them  before  he  began  to  write.  But 
he  was  no  slavish  imitator  of  them,  and  he 
altogether  repudiated  their  excesses  and 
their  doctrine  of  the  sacraments.  Browne 
was  a  genius,  and  had  all  the  defects  of  his 
qualities  as  such.  Therefore,  while  we  re- 
cognise his  limitations,  we  must  not  judge 
him  too  harshly. 

His  teaching  is  to  be  found  in  two  books. 
The  first  and  most  important  of  them  was 


THE  SEPARATISTS  45 

entitled,  A  Book  which  showeth  the  Life  and 
Manners  of  all  true  Christians ;  and  the  second, 
A    Treatise   of  Reformation   without   tarrying 
for  Anie.     Browne  here  lays  down  the  funda- 
mental   Congregational    principle    that    the 
members    of    a    Christian     Church   must    be 
Christians,  and  that  the  one  and  only  ruler 
of  the  Church  is  Jesus  Christ  Himself.     "  The 
Church  planted  or  gathered  is  a  company  or 
number  of  Christians  or  believers,  which,  by 
a  willing  covenant  made  with  their  God,  are 
under  the  government  of  God  and  Christ,  and 
keep    his    laws    in    one    holy    communion : 
because    Christ    hath   redeemed    them   unto 
holiness  and  happiness  for  ever,  from  v/hich 
they  were  fallen  by  the  sin  of  Adam."     "  The 
Church  Government  is  the  Lordship  of  Christ 
in  the  communion  of  his  offices  :   whereby  his 
people  obey  to  his  will,  and  have  mutual  use 
of  their  graces  and  callings,  to  further  their 
godliness    and    welfare."     ("A  book    which 
showeth,"  §  35.)  Under  this  headship  of  Christ, ! 
Churches    were    to    be    self-governing;    but,  | 
where  an  individual   Church  had   difficulty,  I V 
matters    were    to    be    referred    to  a    Synod,  ? 
consisting,  not   of   delegates,  but   of  all  the! 
Churches  meeting  together.     The  officers  of'^     , 
the  Church — pastors,    teachers    and  elders-H  V 
were  to  form  a  permanent  Church  Council,    ' 
for  matters  of  advice  and  discipline.     Their 
authority,    however,    was    not   derived   from 
the  people  but  from  "  the  office  and  message  of 
God,"  and  it  was  the  function  of  the  Church 


46  NONCONFORMITY 

to  decide  to  whom  this  office  and  message 
was  entrusted,  and  to  set  them  apart  for 
their  special  work.  Thus  it  will  be  seen 
that  Browne's  system  was  not  pure  Congre- 
gationalism, but  contained  an  element  of 
Presbyterianism,  though  he  had  no  sympathy 
whatever  with  those  who,  like  Cartwright, 
sought  to  set  up  Presbyterianism  within 
Episcopacy.  His  importance  lies  in  the 
fact  that  he  first  gave  ordered  and  articulate 
expression  to  those  more  democratic  and 
spiritual  ideas  of  Churchmanship  which  re- 
sulted from  the  study  of  the  New  Testament 
model,  and  from  comparison  between  the 
Churches  there  described  and  the  Church  as 
it  was  then  known  in  England. 

That  these  ideas  were  not  confined  to  one 
part  of  the  country  is  indicated  by  the 
records  which  have  been  preserved  of  a 
Separatist  Church  which  met  in  London  as 
early  as  the  year  1571.  Its  members  describe 
themselves  as  "a  poor  congregation  whom 
God  hath  separated  from  the  Church  of 
England  and  from  the  mingled  and  false 
worshipping  therein."  They  mention  one, 
Richard  Fitz,  as  their  minister,  and  Thomas 
Rowland,  deacon,  both  of  whom,  they  say, 
pined  to  death  in  prison.  This  little  com- 
munity was  soon  broken  up  by  the  authorities, 
but  the  ideas  it  represented  were  not  to  be 
easily  suppressed.  It  had  successors  in 
different  parts  of  London,  sporadic  gatherings 
of  faithful  men  and  women  who  met  together 


THE  SEPARATISTS  47 

to  worship  God  in  accordance  with  conscience 
and  in  defiance  of  the  law. 

It  is  in  connection  with  one  of  these 
gatherings  in  Islington  (1586)  that  we  meet 
with  the  names  of  Greenwood  and  Barrow, 
two  of  the  most  famous  of  the  early  Separatist 
leaders.  These  men,  like  Browne,  had  both 
been  trained  at  Cambridge.  Barrow  was  a 
young  barrister  of  dissolute  life  who  had 
been  converted  by  the  chance  hearing  of  a 
sermon  and  became  a  Puritan.  As  his  kins- 
man, Lord  Bacon,  says,  "  He  made  a  leap 
from  a  vain  and  libertine  youth  to  a  precise- 
ness  in  the  highest  degree."  His  new  de- 
parture brought  him  into  close  intimacy  with 
Greenwood,  who  had  imbibed  Puritan 
opinions  under  Cartwright  at  Cambridge, 
but  had  afterwards  resigned  his  orders 
in  the  Church  of  England  and  become  a 
Separatist.  He  was  a  leader  in  the  London 
congregation,  and  was  arrested  by  the  order 
of  Whitgift.  Barrow  went  to  visit  him  in 
the  Clink  prison  in  1586,  and  was  himself 
illegally  detained.  The  two  men  were  com- 
mitted to  the  Fleet  in  the  following  year  and 
remained  there  until  their  execution  at 
Tyburn  in  1593.  They  were  indicted  under 
the  Act  of  1581,  which  was  really  directed 
against  Roman  Catholics,  but  became  now  a 
very  convenient  instrument  for  dealing  with 
Nonconformists  of  all  kinds. 

Again  and  again  during  their  imprisonment 
Barrow  and  Greenwood  were  examined  as  to 


48  NONCONFORMITY 

their  views,  sometimes  before  the  Arch- 
bishop's Court  of  High  Commission  at 
Lambeth  and  sometimes  before  the  Council 
at  Whitehall,  under  Burghley,  the  Lord 
Treasurer.  The  records  of  these  examina- 
tions are  extant,  and  form  one  of  the  most 
moving  recitals  of  this  period  of  persecution. 
It  is  significant  of  the  temper  of  the  times 
that  even  the  saintly  Bishop  Andrewes  took 
part  in  the  work  of  baiting  these  poor  men, 
though  it  seems  to  have  been  very  little  to 
his  taste.  The  appearance  of  the  culprits 
was  not  altogether  creditable.  They  spoke 
harshly,  and  often  unadvisedly,  and  were 
easily  set  down  by  authority  as  foolish 
fanatics.  But  it  must  be  remembered  that 
their  spirit  was  broken  by  their  long  and 
miserable  confinement,  and  their  pitiful 
appeals  for  considerate  treatment  met  with 
no  response.  They  were  bullied  and  brow- 
beaten, but  throughout  it  all  their  convictions 
remained  unshaken,  and  they  gave  no  ground 
for  any  charge  of  treason  or  disloyalty.  In 
the  end  they  were  subjected  to  the  torture 
of  being  twice  taken  to  the  place  of  execution, 
and,  when  the  rope  was  round  their  necks,  re- 
prieved amid  the  plaudits  of  the  crowd.  The 
third  time  no  reprieve  came.  They  made  an 
excellent  end  and  prayed  for  the  Queen's 
Majesty. 

These  men  were  only  two  out  of  some  three- 
score and  twelve  persons  who  were  imprisoned 
in  the  later  years  of  Elizabeth  for  holding 


THE  SEPARATISTS  49 

Separatist  opinions.  In  1592  a  petition  was 
presented  to  Parliament  from  some  fifty- 
six  of  these.  It  is  said  to  have  been  written 
by  Barrow,  and  is  a  trenchant  indictment 
of  ''  the  prelates  of  this  land  and  their 
complices."  "  These  godless  men  have  put 
the  blood  of  war  about  them  in  the  day  of  the 
peace  and  truce  which  this  whole  land  pro- 
fesseth  to  hold  with  Jesus  Christ  and  his 
servants.  Bishops  Bonner,  Story,  Weston 
dealt  not  after  this  sort.  For  those  whom 
they  committed  close  they  would  also  either 
feed  or  permit  to  be  fed  by  others  :  and  they 
brought  them  in  short  space  openly  into 
Smithfield  to  end  their  misery  and  to  begin 
their  never-ending  joy.  Whereas  Bishop 
Elmar,  Dr.  Stanhope,  and  Mr.  Justice  Young, 
with  the  rest  of  that  persecuting  and  blood- 
thirsty faculty,  will  do  neither  of  these.  No 
felons,  no  murderers,  no  traitors  in  this  land 
are  thus  dealt  with.  There  are  many  of  us, 
by  the  mercies  of  God,  still  out  of  their 
hands.  The  former  holy  exercise  and  pro- 
fession we  purpose  not  to  leave  by  the  assist- 
ance of  God.  We  have  as  good  warrant  to 
reject  the  ordinances  of  Antichrist,  and  labour 
for  the  recovery  of  Christ's  holy  institutions 
as  our  fathers  and  brethren  in  Queen  Mary's 
days  had  to  do  the  like.  And  we  doubt  not 
if  our  cause  were  truly  known  unto  Her 
Majesty  and  your  wisdoms,  but  we  should 
find  greater  favour  than  they  did,  whereas 
our  estate  now  is  far  more  lamentable.    And, 


50  NONCONFORMITY 

therefore,  we  humbly  and  earnestly  crave 
of  Her  Majesty  and  your  Lordships — both 
for  ourselves  abroade  and  for  our  brethren 
now  in  miserable  captivity — but  just  and 
equal  trial  according  unto  Her  Majesty's  laws. 
If  we  prove  not  our  adversaries  to  be  in  a 
most  pestilent  and  godless  course,  both  in 
regard  of  their  offices  and  their  proceedings 
in  them,  and  ourselves  to  be  in  the  right  way, 
we  desire-  not  to  have  the  benefit  of  Her 
Majesty's  true  and  faithful  subjects,  which  of 
all  earthly  favours  we  account  to  be  one  of  the 
greatest.  Are  we  malefactors  ?  Are  we  any- 
wise undutiful  unto  our  Prince  ?  Maintain 
we  any  errors  ?  Let  us  then  be  judicially 
convicted  thereof  and  delivered  to  the  civil 
authority.  But  let  not  these  bloody  men 
both  accuse,  condemn,  and  closely  murther 
after  this  sort,  contrary  to  all  law,  equity, 
and  conscience,  where  they  alone  are  the 
plaintiffs,  the  accusers,  the  judges,  and  the 
executioners  of  their  most  fearful  and  barbar- 
ous tyranny.  They  should  not  by  the  laws 
of  this  land  go  any  farther  in  cases  of  religion 
than  their  own  ecclesiastical  censure,  and 
then  refer  us  to  the  civil  power." 

A  little  more  than  a  month  after  the  exe- 
cution of  Barrow  and  Greenwood,  the  Bishops 
found  another  victim  in  John  Penry.  This 
was  a  young  Welshman  who  had  renounced 
Romanism  while  at  the  University,  but  had 
become  a  Separatist  only  a  short  time  before. 
He   was   specially   marked   for   trial   as   the 


THE  SEPARATISTS  51 

reputed  author  of  the  Marprelate  tracts, 
whose  biting  satires  on  the  hierarchy  had 
become  inconveniently  popular.  Though 
Penry  was  probably  not  their  author,  he  had 
much  to  do  with  their  publication,  and 
suffered  accordingly. 

The  chief  effect  of  these  persecutions  was 
to  scatter  the  seeds  of  Separatism  yet  more 
widely.  There  now  began  that  series  of 
emigrations  which  culminated  in  the  sailing 
of  the  Pilgrim  Fathers  to  the  New  World 
and  reacted  in  many  ways  on  the  Independent 
Churches  at  home.  The  Conventicle  Act  of 
1592  drove  the  Separatists  abroad  and 
threatened  them  with  death  if  they  returned. 
Some  of  them  took  the  risk  of  remaining,  but 
many  of  them  found  a  home  in  Amsterdam 
and  set  up  an  Independent  Church  there  under 
the  leadership  of  Henry  Ainsworth  and 
Francis  Johnson.  Holland  was  a  welcome 
place  of  refuge  for  the  persecuted  in  these 
troubled  times.  The  Reformed  Evangelical 
Church  had  full  liberty  there,  and  the  sym- 
pathies of  the  people  were  with  the  Noncon- 
formists of  England.  Considerable  com- 
panies of  them  from  some  twenty-nine 
English  counties  went  over  during  the 
years  from  1595  to  1620.  It  was  a  band  of 
exiles  from  Gainsborough  and  Scrooby  that 
ultimately  formed  the  Church  at  Leyden 
under  John  Robinson,  and  it  was  from  that 
Church  that  the  founders  of  New  England 
sailed  in  the  Mayflower, 


52  NONCONFORMITY 

But  the  story  of  the  Church  in  Holland  is 
not  altogether  an  edifying  one.  The  In- 
dependent or  Congregational  system  is  one 
that  requires  a  truly  Christian  standard  of 
conduct  if  it  is  to  be  successfully  maintained. 
Where  this  is  absent  it  invariably  breaks 
down.  In  the  old  days,  as  is  often  the  case 
still,  the.  system  was  too  fine  for  the  weak 
men  and  women  who  were  called  upon  to 
administer  it.  Jealousies  of  a  petty  personal 
kind  broke  out.  There  were  unseemly  wrangles 
and  factions,  and  the  spirit  shown  was  narrow 
and  censorious  to  a  degree.  For  all  that, 
however,  the  movement  was  not  really  re- 
tarded. It  was  too  great  a  thing  to  be  injured 
permanently  by  the  personal  defection  of  a 
few.  In  the  free  air  of  a  new  country  men  had 
time  to  mature  their  ideas  and  to  put  them 
into  shape.  Books  and  pamphlets  were 
written  which  carried  the  seed  of  the  new 
doctrine  far  afield,  and  the  exile  nourished 
a  freer  and  more  vigorous  type  of  religion, 
which  speedily  reacted  on  the  Separatist 
communities  of  the  mother-land. 

It  is  in  connection  with  the  Amsterdam 
Church  that  we  come  across  the  beginnings 
of  the  Baptist  denomination  as  distinguished 
from  the  Independent.  There  had  come 
over  with  the  Gainsborough  exiles  one,  John 
Smyth,  who  had  been  lecturer  or  preacher 
to  the  City  of  Lincoln,  but  had  been  deposed 
from  his  office  for  holding  Separatist  views. 
He  was  a  man  of  singular  but  erratic  genius 


THE  SEPARATISTS  53 

and  of  an  excellent   Christian  temper.     He 
had   a   bold   and   open    mind,    and   did   not 
hesitate  to  follow  wherever  he  thought  the 
truth  led  him.     At  Amsterdam  he,  at  first, 
practised    as    a    physician,    but    very    soon 
became  the  leader  of  what  was  known  as  the 
Second  Church  there.     There  is  some  doubt 
indeed  whether  he  ever  belonged  to  the  Church 
of  Johnson  and  Ainsworth.     Smyth  was  not 
a  man  who  could  easily  range  himself  with 
others.     He    had    already    published    several 
small  books  and   pamphlets  maintaining  the 
Brownist  theory  of  Church  government  and 
defending     the      apostolic      and      primitive 
character    of    the    new    order.     In    1609    he    I 
advanced  upon  these  by  issuing  The  Char-    \ 
acter   of  the  Beast,    in   which    he    definitely   ^ 
set   forth   his   Baptist   views.     His   position,     / 
briefly,    was   that   infants   ought   not   to   be/\ 
baptized,   because  it  is  not  enjoined  in  the      . 
New  Testament,  nor  are  there  any  examples  \/ 
of    the    practice,    and    because    Christ    com-  /\ 
manded  to  make  disciples  by  teaching,  and 
that  only  afterwards  were  they  to  be  baptized,  y/ 
Smyth    immediately    proceeded    to    put    his  J\ 
theory  into  practice  by  baptizing  first  him- 
self,   then    one    of    his    most    prominent   ad- 
herents, Mr.  Helwys,  and  then  the  rest  of  his 
friends,   all   on   their    individual    confessions. 
Later   he   came   to    doubt    whether    he    had 
done  right,  and  had  himself  and  his  friends 
rebaptized    by    the    Memnonite    Church    in 
Amsterdam. 


54  NONCONFORMITY 

At  this  time  the  conflict  between  Calvinism 
and  Arminianism  was  at  its  height.  The 
Independents  were  strongly-  Calvinistic,  but 
Smyth  as  strongly  asserted  the  Arminian 
position.  He  maintained  that  "  infants  are 
conceived  and  born  in  innocency  without 
sin,  and  so  dying  are  undoubtedly  saved,"  . 
and  that  "  God  doth  not  predestinate  any  | 
man  to  destruction."  In  these  bold  opinions 
he  was  followed  by  Helwys ;  and  when, 
after  his  death,  Helwys  transferred  the 
Baptist  Congregation  to  Newgate  Street, 
London,  this  little  church,  under  his  leader- 
ship, had  the  honour  of  being  the  first  place 
in  England  where  absolute  liberty  of  religion 
and  conscience  was  proclaimed.  It  was 
by  the  Baptists,  in  the  first  instance,  that 
toleration  was  practised  and  that  the  full 
doctrine  of  religious  freedom  was  maintained. 
^John  Smyth's  confession  of  1612  contained 
the  words  :  "  The  magistrate  is  not  by  virtue 
of  his  ofhce  to  meddle  with  religion,  or  matters 
of  conscience,  to  force  or  compel  men  to  this 
or  that  form  of  religion  or  doctrine."  And 
the  reason  given  for  this  was,  that  "  Christ 
only  is  the  King  and  lawgiver  of  the  Church 
and  Conscience."  This  position  followed 
directly  from  the  stress  laid  by  the  Baptists 
on  conversion  as  something  entirely  between 
a  man  and  his  God.  It  could  not  in  any 
way  be  forced  by  outside  authority,  and  so 
no  outside  authority  had  any  right  over  a 
man's   conscience  and  faith.     At  the   same 


THE  SEPARATISTS  55 

time  men  must  respect  the  religious  views 
of  others,  as  being  at  least  equally  sincere 
with  their  own.  It  was  a  long  time  before 
this  spirit  of  tolerance  and  freedom  was 
accepted  by  any  section  of  the  Church,  but 
the  Baptists  have  the  credit  of  being  the 
first  to  state  and  recommend  it. 

In  this  early  period,  as  in  all  their  later 
history,  Baptists  and  Independents  accepted 
the  same  system  of  Church  government. 
There  was  a  good  deal  of  elasticity  in  organisa- 
tion, but  on  the  main  principles  writers  on 
both  sides  were  agreed.  That  Christ  was  ,,>^ 
the  sole  Head  of  the  Church,  that  all  the  -K 
members  of  the  Church  must  be  Christians,  \^ 
that  the  government  of  the  Church  should 
be  in  the  hands  of  its  members,  and  that  the  \X 
State  had  no  right  of  interference — these  '«A 
were  elementary  points  on  which  the  Separa- 
tists of  both  sections  were  at  one.  Hostile 
writers  of  later  date  were  not  content  with 
these  simplicities,  but  ascribed  to  the 
Churches  in  Holland,  and  to  their  friends  in 
this  country,  the  most  extraordinary  excesses 
both  of  doctrine  and  conduct.  Doubtless 
there  were  many  connected  with  these 
Churches  who  gave  some  colour  to  the 
charge.  The  time  was  one  of  great  mental 
unrest,  and  of  the  breaking  of  many  old 
bonds,  and  the  Separatists  shared  to  the  full 
the  spirit  of  their  age.  Nor  is  the  atmosphere 
of  persecution  generally  productive  of 
sobriety    and    common-sense    views.     It    is 


56  NONCONFORMITY 

therefore  much  to  the  credit  of  these  early 
Nonconformists  that,  so  far  as  their  extant 
writings  are  concerned,  there  should  be  so 
little  in  them  that  is  merely  extravagant. 
They  stated  their  position  in  a  sober  and 
judicial  fashion,  and  in  its  main  essentials 
it  is  the  position  which  their  representatives 
and  successors  have  maintained  ever  since. 
The  difficulty  about  it,  then  as  now,  was 
that  the  position  represented  an  ideal  which 
required  something  more  than  ordinary 
human  nature  to  work  it.  It  must  be  ad- 
mitted that  the  Separatists  did  not  always 
live  up  to  their  professions,  and  that  in  their 
ideal  of  the  Church  and  of  Christian  life 
there  is  something  almost  "  too  great  and 
good  for  human  nature's  daily  food."  For 
all  that,  however,  the  movement  they  repre- 
sent was  a  very  great  one,  and  must  be  given 
its  due  place  among  all  the  wonderful 
activities  of  the  Elizabethan  age.  Its  great- 
ness, as  well  as  its  limitations,  may  be  seen 
in  the  history  of  those  emigrants  who  tried 
to  found  a  Church  and  State  after  their  own 
hearts  across  the  Atlantic.  In  their  zeal  for 
pure  religion,  their  love  for  education,  and 
their  high  standard  of  civilisation,  the 
Puritans  of  New  England  showed  what  their 
system  was  capable  of  when  it  had  free 
play.  If  it  was  marred  by  much  intolerance 
and  a  certain  theological  narrowness,  this 
only  serves  as  an  indication  that  it  was  not 
altogether   emancipated   from   the    spirit    of 


THE  SEPARATISTS  57 

the  time.  The  Separatists  were  no  worse  in 
these  respects  than  their  contemporaries, 
w^hile  in  others  they  were  so  far  superior  that 
the  truths  for  which  they  stood  have  gradually 
won  their  way  to  almost  universal  recognition 
and  respect.  Their  representative  men  were 
not,  as  is  so  often  suggested,  common  and 
unlearned.  Let  it  be  repeated  again  that 
they  were  men  of  culture  and  almost  in- 
variably of  University  education.  They  had 
reached  their  position  through  thought  and 
study,  and  they  were  able  to  hold  it  in- 
telligently against  all  comers.  And,  what 
was  perhaps  more  important,  they  had 
behind  them  a  living  Christian  experience 
which  fortified  them  against  persecution 
and  ridicule  alike.  , 

The  finest  example  of  early  Nonconformity! 
is  undoubtedly  the  Church  at  Ley  den  in| 
Holland.  Under  the  guidance  of  John' 
Robinson,  himself  the  noblest  of  the  Separa- 
tists, this  Church  became  a  striking  object- 
lesson  as  to  what  Nonconformist  principles 
could  accomplish  when  fairly  translated  into 
action.  Governor  Bradford  writes  of  them  : 
"  They  lived  together  in  love  and  peace 
all  their  days  without  any  considerable 
difference  or  any  disturbance  that  grew 
thereby,  but  such  as  was  easily  healed  in 
love,  and  so  they  continued  until  with  mutual 
consent  they  removed  into  New  England." 
There  is  abundant  testimony  to  the  same 
effect   from  other   writers,   and  the   history 


58  NONCONFORMITY 

of  this  Church  is-  one  that  every  Noncon- 
formist may  look  back  to  with  pride  and  satis- 
faction. Robinson  was  a  vokiminous  writer 
and  a  keen  controversiaHst.  But  of  all  the 
religious  writers  of  his  time  he  is  distinguished 
for  breadth  of  spirit  and  charity  of  speech.  He 
was  firm  in  his  own  convictions  and  sure  of 
his  own  mind,  but  he  was  willing  to  allow 
the  same  liberty  to  others  that  he  claimed 
himself,  and  could  realise  the  spiritual  brother- 
hood of  those  who  were  widely  divided  from 
him  in  opinion.  Robinson  was  largely  re- 
sponsible for  drawing  up  the  covenant  of 
the  Mayflower,  the  first  real  charter  of  civil 
and  religious  liberty,  and  his  broad  outlook 
and  generous  temper  are  illustrated  by  the 
oft-quoted  words  in  his  final  address  to  the 
Pilgrims  on  their  departure  from  Leyden  : 
"  I  am  very  confident  that  the  Lord  hath 
more  truth  and  light  yet  to  break  forth  out 
of  his  Holy  word." 

Very  similar  in  temper  to  Robinson  was 
Henry  Jacob,  who  returned  from  Holland  in 
1616  and  founded  a  Congregational  Church 
at  Southwark.  Jacob  was  an  Oxford  man, 
who  had  played  some  part  in  the  Puritan 
controversy  and  had  become  a  Separatist 
by  sheer  force  of  circumstances.  The  Church 
he  founded  was  the  first  of  the  kind  to  take 
root  on  English  soil.  After  Jacob's  death  in 
1624  it  had  famous  pastors  in  John  Lathrop, 
Praise -God  Barbon  or  Barebones,  Henry 
Jessey  and  Hanserd  Knollys,  both  Cambridge 


THE  SEPARATISTS  59 

graduates.  It  has  special  importance  also 
for  the  history  of  the  Baptists,  for  out  of  it  at 
least  five  Baptist  churches  sprang,  and  the 
IMother  Church  itself  became  Baptist  in 
principle,  first  with  an  open,  and  afterwards 
with  a  strict  membership.  Though  the 
Church  practised  believers'  baptism,  the 
method  was  not  that  of  immersion,  which 
only  became  general  among  the  strict  Baptists 
about  1638.  The  history  of  this  Church 
illustrates  the  close  relation  between  Baptists 
and  Independents  in  these  early  daj^s,  and 
shows  how  the  question  of  Baptism,  though 
the  subject  of  acute  controversy,  was  dealt 
with  at  first  in  such  a  way  as  to  cause  no 
more  than  a  friendly  separation  of  Churches. 
The  Baptists  formally  adopted  immersion  in  a 
series  of  articles  drawn  up  in  1644,  and  from 
that  time  onwards  have  been  a  separate 
denomination.  At  the  time  of  which  we  are 
speaking  the  differences  between  them  and 
the  Independents  were  not  such  as  to  preclude 
friendly  relations.  In  his  controversy  with 
Helwys,  Robinson  maintained  that  true 
baptism  is  that  which  is  administered  in  a 
congregation  of  believers  with  the  outward 
baptism  of  water  and  the  inward  baptism  of 
the  spirit.  But  he  allowed  at  the  same  time 
that  even  in  an  apostate  Church  baptism 
was  a  spiritual  ordinance.  Helwys,  too, 
held  that  infants  could  be  saved  by  the 
redemptive  work  of  Christ  though  they  were 
incapable    of    baptism.     Their    views    were 


i 


60  NONCONFORMITY 

by  no  means  mutually  exclusive,  and  might 
very  well  form  a  basis  of  reunion  between 
the  two  Churches  concerned. 


CHAPTER  IV 

LAUD    AND   THE   PURITANS 

During  the  closing  years  of  Elizabeth's 
reign,  while  the  Separatists  and  Pres- 
byterians were  banished  or  silenced,  the 
Puritans  within  the  Church  enjoyed  a  period 
of  comparative  repose.  There  is  evidence 
that  they  grew  rapidly  both  in  numbers  and 
influence,  and  when  James  I  came  to  the 
throne  in  1603  they  evidently  hoped  to 
obtain  some  redress  of  their  grievances. 
The  new  King,  on  his  arrival  in  London, 
was  presented  with  a  petition  signed  by 
some  eight  hundred  ministers,  which  set 
forth  their  demands  in  the  most  moderate 
terms.  This  Millenary  Petition,  as  it  was 
called,  asked  for  some  relaxation  of  the 
laws  enforcing  objectionable  ceremonies  ;  for 
the  suppression  of  Popish  doctrines  ;  for 
the  guarding  of  the  ministry  against 
unworthy  men  ;  and  for  reform  of  the 
ecclesiastical  courts.  At  the  same  time,  the 
petitioners  expressly  disclaimed  any  desire 
to  tamper  with  Episcopacy,  or  to  introduce 


LAUD  AND  THE  PURITANS        61 

a  Presbyterian  system  of  Church  govern- 
ment. This  petition  was  followed  by  others, 
notably  by  one  from  the  Congregational 
exiles  in  Amsterdam.  James  felt  their  signi- 
ficance, and  it  was  quite  in  accordance  with 
his  character  that  he  should  call  a  Conference 
to  consider  whether  there  was  anything  in 
the  settlement  of  the  Church  which  "  might 
deserve  a  review  and  an  amendment."  This 
Hampton  Court  Conference  met  in  January 
1604,  with  the  King  as  President.  The 
Bishops  and  the  Puritans  were  both  vvell 
represented,  and  the  latter  were  allowed  to 
state  their  case.  They  obtained  little  for 
their  pains,  however,  save  a  succession  of 
tirades  from  the  King.  His  summary  dealing 
with  them  greatly  pleased  the  Bishops,  who 
declared  that  he  spoke  with  the  special 
assistance  of  the  Holy  Ghost,  and  that  there 
had  been  no  such  king  since  Christ's  day. 
The  only  practical  outcome  of  the  Confer- 
ence was  some  slight  alterations  in  the  Prayer 
Book  and  the  preparation  of  the  Authorised 
Version  of  the  Bible. 

It  soon  became  evident  that  James  would 
be  a  ready  tool  in  the  hands  of  the  Bishops. 
He  w^as  easily  flattered,  and  found  it  quite 
appropriate  that  he  should  claim  divine 
rights.  In  consequence  all  w^ho  refused  to 
conform  to  the  order  which  he  represented 
must  suffer.  In  1604  the  Convocation  of 
Canterbury  adopted  certain  canons  ecclesias- 
tical which  greatly  increased  the  stringency 


62  NONCONFORMITY 

of  subscription  and  imposed  fresh  penalties 
against  nonconformity  and  schism.  Though 
the  Puritans  contended  that  these  could  not 
be  enforced  save  by  an  Act  of  Parliament, 
enforced  they  were,  and  some  three  hundred 
clergy  were  deprived  or  silenced.  There 
followed  a  period  of  stagnation,  when  the 
King  and  his  ecclesiastics  had  things  all 
their  own  way.  Puritanism  was  on  the 
decline,  and  there  grew  up  v/ithin  the  Church 
a  new  party  which  began  to  insist  on  the 
divine  right  of  Episcopacy,  to  revive  Roman 
ceremonial,  and  to  invest  the  clergy  with  the 
powers  of  a  priesthood.  The  Lord's  table 
became  an  altar,  and  the  full  doctrine  of 
transubstantiation  was  taught.  This  move- 
ment began  during  the  archbishopric  of 
Bancroft.  In  1610  he  was  succeeded  by 
Abbot,  and  for  a  time  the  measures  against 
the  Puritans  were  relaxed,  and  Separatism 
began  once  more  to  hold  up  its  head.  Henry 
Jacob  came  over  from  Leyden  and  organised 
a  Congregational  Church  in  London.  At  the 
same  time  there  arose  a  better  feeling  between 
Separatists  and  Puritans,  and  a  tendency  to 
make  common  cause  under  the  pressure  of 
persecution.  Puritanism  began  to  revive 
and  spread  rapidly  once  more,  largely  owing 
to  the  growth  of  the  belief  in  the  Romanising 
temper  of  the  King. 

With  the  death  of  James  and  the  accession 
of  Charles  in  1625  the  situation  again  changed. 
Charles  was  determined  to  be  head  of  the 


LAUD  AND  THE  PURITANS        63 

Church  in  deed  as  well  as  in  name  and  to  put 
down  all  irregularities  with  a  heav}^  hand. 
He  found  in  Laud  an  instrument  suited  to 
the  occasion,  and  the  two  together  entered 
upon  a  policy  that  could  only  end  in  their 
entire  undoing.  Laud  was  a  true  son  of 
the  Catholic  revival,  and  his  aim  was  to 
carry  it  to  its  logical  conclusion.  He  was  a 
devout  man  to  whom  his  religion  was  the 
greatest  of  realities,  and  he  had  the  kind  of 
ruthless  sincerity  that  comes  very  near  to 
fanaticism.  In  all  he  did  he  thought  he 
was  doing  God  service,  and  even  his  cruelties 
could  be  covered  by  the  motive  that  prompted 
them.  He  fought  Puritanism  to  the  death 
both  on  doctrinal  and  political  grounds.  Him- 
self an  Arminian,  he  detested  the  Calvinistic 
theology  of  the  Puritan  clergy,  and  e.s  a 
believer  in  the  divine  right  of  kings  he  found 
natural  enemies  in  all  those  who  stood  for 
religious  and  civil  liberty.  He  soon  made 
it  evident  that  there  was  no  room  for  Puritan- 
ism in  the  English  Church  as  he  conceived 
it.  The  Puritans  themselves  agreed  with 
him,  and  began  in  greater  numbers  to  make 
common  cause  with  the  Separatists.  In  1629 
and  1630  there  were  large  emigrations  of 
Puritans  to  the  Western  world,  where  they 
founded  settlements  in  Massachusetts  Bay 
and  along  the  Connecticut  River.  But  that 
the  spirit  which  led  them  was  not  quite  that 
of  the  earlier  Nonconformists  they  always 
maintained.     This  is  evidenced  by  the  well- 


64  NONCONFORMITY 

known  farewell  words  of  Francis  Higginson  : 
"  We  will  not  say,  as  the  Separatists  were 
wont  to  say  at  their  leaving  of  England, 
'  Farewell  Babylon,  farewell  Rome,'  but  we 
will  say,  '  Farewell  dear  England,  farewell 
the  Church  of  God  in  England  and  all  the 
Christian  friends  there.'  We  do  not  go  to 
New  England  as  Separatists  from  the  Church 
of  England,  though  we  cannot  but  separate 
from  the  corruptions  in  it." 

Laud  became  Archbishop  of  Canterbury 
in  1633,  and  at  once  set  about  preparing  a 
scheme  of  Church  reform.  There  was  no 
question  as  to  the  need  for  it,  and  the  in- 
tentions of  the  new  Archbishop  were  ex- 
cellent, if  his  mode  of  carrying  them  out 
left  something  to  be  desired.  We  read 
of  drunken,  immoral  and  absentee  clergy, 
of  churches  that  were  used  for  fairs  and 
cockfights,  of  slovenly  services  and  the 
neglect  of  preaching.  All  this  Laud  very 
speedily  put  an  end  to,  and  introduced  a 
decency  and  order  into  the  public  services 
of  religion  such  as  had  hardly  been  known 
before.  At  the  same  time,  however,  he  went 
further,  and  aimed  at  a  uniformity  of  Catholic 
ritual  that  was  intensely  abhorrent  to  the 
whole  Puritan  section  of  the  Church.  Tlie 
^  wearing  of  the  surplice,  the  railing  in  of  the 
/communion  table,  and  the  use  of  the  sign 
^  of  the  cross  at  baptism  were  demanded 
of  all  ministers,  and  the  least  irregularity 
in  the  observance  of  the  rubric  caused  the 


K 


LAUD  AND  THE  PURITANS        65 

offender  to  be  arraigned  before  the  Bishop 
or  the  Court  of  High  Commission.  A  regular 
service  of  espionage  was  established  through- 
out the  whole  country,  and  contumacy  was 
punished  in  some  cases  with  fearful  severity. 
The  result  was,  as  we  have  seen,  that  the 
best  of  the  Puritan  clergy  were  driven  out 
of  the  country,  and  the  whole  movement 
for  the  time  was  crushed.  Laud  had  his 
way  and  obtained  the  outward  uniformity  X 
he  sought,  but  it  was  at  a  great  cost.  He 
made  a  wilderness  and  called  it  peace. 

His  activities,  however,  were  not  confined 
to  the  Church.  Along  with  Strafford  and 
Buckingham,  he  supported  the  King  in  the 
assertion  of  his  divine  rights  and  in  his 
effort  to  rule  and  raise  taxes  without  the  aid 
of  Parliament.  For  eleven  years  a  Parlia- 
ment was  dispensed  with,  and  when,  in  the 
stress  of  the  agitation  against  the  Ship-money, 
the  King  was  forced  to  summon  one,  he 
found  it  to  be  of  a  very  stubborn  temper. 
The  fact  is  that  Laud's  religious  policy  had 
by  this  time  reacted  sharply  on  the  political 
situation.  The  Puritan  temper  was  not 
altogether  to  be  suppressed,  and  was  by  no 
means  confined  to  the  clergy.  When  the 
latter  were  silenced  or  banished  their  work 
was  carried  on  by  the  laity,  and  naturally 
enough  took  a  political  complexion.  At 
the  same  time  Laud's  treatment  of  the 
Puritans  within  the  Church  had  served  to 
revive  Separatism  once  more.     Puritans  and 


66  NONCONFORMITY 

Separatists  made  common  cause  under  per- 
secution, and  not  a  few  of  the  former 
passed  over  into  the  ranks  of  the  latter,  and 
their  action  was  but  the  logical  result  of  their 
protest  against  Laud.  Others  of  them,  though 
they  did  not  go  so  far  as  this,  showed  in  their 
writings  a  new  sympathy  with,  and  under- 
standing of,  the  Separatist  position.  The 
Puritans  within  the  Church  were  in  an  ano- 
malous position,  and  when  Laud's  policy  in 
Scotland  drove  them  into  the  arms  of  the 
Presbyterians,  as  we  shall  see  later,  they 
were  easily  absorbed  by  them.  Meanwhile 
the  Independents  grew  stronger  and  more 
determined,  and  were  preparing  themselves 
for  the  great  part  which  they  were  shortly 
to  play.  In  spite  of  the  vigilance  of  Laud, 
new  Separatist  churches  were  continually 
springing  up,  and  formed  a  training-ground 
for  the  men  who  became  the  backbone  of 
the  Revolution,  men  like  Hampden  who 
raised  the  revolt  against  the  Ship-money, 
and  Pym  and  Cromwell  in  the  Long  Parlia- 
ment. Both  Puritans  and  Independents 
have  been  blamed  for  so  easily  turning  their 
activities  into  political  channels.  But  the 
fact  is  that  they  had  no  alternative.  They 
must  either  abandon  their  principles  alto- 
gether, or  use  the  weapons  which  the  folly 
of  the  King  and  his  advisers  put  into  their 
hands.  And,  in  a  very  real  sense,  the  political 
struggle  was  also  a  religious  one.  It  was  for 
freedom  of  conscience  that  men  had  now  to 


LAUD  AND  THE  PURITANS        67 

fight,  and  the  cause  is  sacred.  Like  all 
earthly  things,  it  was  mingled  with  much 
that  was  evil,  but  the  best  men  on  the  Parlia- 
ment side  in  the  Civil  War  never  quite  lest  the 
sense  of  the  spiritual  issues  that  were  at  stake. 
It  may  be  convenient  here  to  attempt 
some  brief  estimate  of  the  Puritans  in 
England — of  the  work  they  did  and  the 
spirit  they  represented.  Until  comparatively 
recent  times  we  knew  little  of  them  save 
through  hostile  channels,  and  it  is  certain 
that  they  are  more  easily  caricatured  than 
understood.  But  if  we  judge  of  them  at 
their  best,  rather  than  in  the  period  of  their 
decline,  we  may  say,  without  fear  of  con- 
tradiction, that  they  represented  the  salt  of 
English  society  in  their  day,  and  that  the 
protest  they  raised  against  moral  and 
political  corruption  on  the  one  hand,  and 
religious  formalism  on  the  other,  was  alto- 
gether timely.  It  is  a  mistake  to  imagine 
that  they  were  common  and  boorish  men. 
Their  leaders,  as  we  have  seen,  were  nearly 
all  members  of  one  or  other  of  the  Uni- 
versities, and  some  of  them  belonged  to  the 
best  families  in  the  land.  They  had  a  real 
zeal  for  education,  as  witness  the  broad 
foundations  of  the  educational  system  they 
laid  in  America,  and  they  were  not  without 
appreciation  of  the  fine  arts.  If  proof  of 
these  things  is  required,  it  can  be  found  in 
the  study  of  the  life  of  Milton,  in  the  exquisite 
picture  of  Colonel  Hutchinson  drawn  by  his 
c  2 


68  NONCONFORMITY 

wife,  and  in  the  family  life  of  John  Winthrop 
as  revealed  in  his  letters.  Whatever  may 
have  been  the  case  at  a  later  period,  the 
Puritans  of  the  early  days  of  the  seventeenth 
century  were  by  no  means  averse  to  sport, 
or  to  any  of  the  innocent  amenities  of  life. 
So  far  from  being  sour  fanatics,  they  were 
often  skilled  in  music,  and  entered  with  zest 
into  the  amusements  of  country  life.  If  they 
refused  to  read  the  book  of  sports  on  Sundays, 
it  was  because  they  believed  that  it  tended 
directly  to  contravene  the  commands  of 
God.  For  they  took  their  religion  seriously 
and  believed  in  the  personal  rule  of  God 
in  human  things.  They  were  at  once  mystics 
and  men  of  affairs.  They  practised  the 
habit  of  prayer  and  of  communion  with  the 
unseen,  and  they  derived  from  it  a  strength 
and  a  wisdom  which  they  were  not  slow  to 
use.  They  had  a  high  moral  standard,  and 
the  abuse  of  it  led,  no  doubt,  to  overcensori- 
ousness  and  a  self  -  righteous  spirit.  But 
this  was  not  until  they  had  lost  something 
of  the  freshness  of  their  faith,  and  until  their 
spirit  had  become  hardened  into  a  system. 
It  must  be  remembered  that  they  were 
fighters  all  the  time.  The  spirit  of  protest 
entered  into  their  blood.  Many  of  them 
suffered  grievously  from  persecution,  and  it 
w^as  almost  inevitable  that  they  should 
become  soured  and  hardened.  This,  how- 
ever, was  their  misfortune  rather  than  their 
fault.     The  wonder  is  that  they  kept  for  so 


LAUD  AND  THE  PURITANS        69 

long  the  purity  of  their  ideals,  and  that 
they  were  ever  able  to  carry  them  out  into 
action.  It  is  commonly  said  that  they  failed, 
but  this  is  only  half  the  truth.  They  were  in 
advance  of  their  age,  and  they  moved  too 
quickly  and  too  thoroughly,  and  in  the  flood 
of  the  reaction  that  was  bound  to  come, 
much  of  their  work  was  destroyed.  But 
their  spirit  has  never  been  quite  lost  from 
English  life.  The  movement  they  repre- 
sented, like  all  such  movements,  suffered 
from  success.  This  brought  into  prominence 
numbers  of  self-seeking  and  interested  men 
who  were  quite  insincere  and  caused  the 
whole  system  to  fall  into  discredit.  It  was 
a  case  of  corruptio  optimi  pessima.  In  the 
time  of  which  we  are  speaking  it  was  im- 
possible to  separate  religion  from  politics, 
and  the  Puritans  stood  for  the  religious  view 
of  a  man's  political  relations  and  duties. 
They  were  the  champions  of  the  rights  of 
the  people,  of  religious  and  civil  liberties, 
and,  the  best  of  them,  of  toleration.  They 
drew  both  their  ideals  and  their  inspiration 
from  the  Bible,  and  they  had  drunk  deep 
of  its  spirit.  But  in  thinking  that  they  could 
retain  their  position  and  remain  within  the 
Church  of  England  they  made  a  great  mis- 
take. Their  attitude  was  utterly  uncongenial 
to  the  atmosphere  of  Anglican  Catholicism 
and  those  of  them  who  had  the  courage  of 
their  convictions  and  became  Separatists 
were    at     least    logical.      In    the     political 


70  NONCONFORMITY 

troubles  that  gathered  during  the  reign  of 
Charles  some  of  them  may  have  found  a  brief 
respite,  but  the  ultimate  severance  from  the 
Church  was  bound  to  come.  Of  the  Puritans 
as  a  whole  we  may  say  with  Carlyle,  that 
they  represent  "  the  last  of  all  our  heroisms. 
No  nobler  heroism  ever  transacted  itself 
on  this  earth." 

The  Long  Parliament  met  in  November 
1640.  It  was  called  in  order  to  supply  the 
King  with  money,  the  need  for  which,  owing 
to  the  Scotch  War,  had  become  pressing. 
But  it  met  in  no  complaisant  mood,  and  at 
once  set  about  the  business  of  dealing  with 
grievances.  The  early  debates  showed 
clearly  enough  the  kind  of  bitter  fruit  which 
Laud's  policy  was  beginning  to  bear.  Earlier 
in  the  year  Convocation  had  adopted  the 
notorious  Book  of  Canons,  and  these  were  at 
once  made  the  subject  of  attack.  The  battle 
was  fought  mainly  round  Canon  VI,  which 
imposed  what  came  to  be  known  as 
the  "  Et  Cetera  "  oath.  It  enacted  that  all 
clergy,  masters  of  arts,  graduates  in  divinity, 
law  or  medicine,  all  registrars,  proctors, 
actuaries  and  schoolmasters  should  swear 
that  they  would  never  consent  to  alter  the 
government  of  the  Church  by  archbishops, 
bishops,  deans  and  archdeacons  et  cetera 
"  as  it  now  stands  established  and  as  by  right 
it  ought  to  stand."  This  "  et  cetera*^"  was 
held  to  be  an  attempt  to  commit  men  un- 
wittingly  to    anything    which    the    extreme 


LAUD  AND  THE  PURITANS        71 

Anglicans  might  wish,  and  was  strongly 
resented  b}^  the  Puritans.  The  debate  led 
to  the  appointment  of  a  Committee  of 
Twenty-four  to  prepare  a  declaration  on 
the  state  of  the  kingdom,  and  the  Canons 
were  referred  to  the  Grand  Committee  on 
Religion. 

Meanwhile,  the  release  and  return  to  London 
of  some  of  Laud's  Puritan  prisoners  had 
greatly  inflamed  religious  animosities.  As 
an  expression  of  this,  the  Root  and  Branch  )/x 
Petition  was  drawn  up  and  presented  to  ^^^ 
Parliament  in  December  1640.  It  demanded 
the  total  abolition  of  Episcopacy,  and  was 
widely  supported  in  London  and  the  home 
counties.  It  gave  rise  to  other  petitions 
asking  for  reform  rather  than  abolition,  and 
the  debates  in  the  House  showed  pretty 
clearly  the  widespread  objection  against  the 
existing  ecclesiastical  system  due  to  the 
political  power  of  the  Bishops,  the  Arminian 
theology,  innovations  tending  to  Popery,  and 
the  persecution  of  the  Puritans  and  Non- 
conformists. This  was  followed  in  January  ^ 
by  the  Ministers'  Petition  and  Remonstrance, 
setting  forth  the  grievances  of  the  Puritan  ^^V^ 
clergy,  and  in  May  by  the  Root  and  Branch  /V^ 
Bill,  described  as  "an  Act  for  the  utter 
abolishing  and  taking  away  of  all  archbishops, 
bishops,  their  chancellors,  commissaries,  deans, 
deans  and  chapters,  archdeacons,  prebend- 
aries, chanters  and  canons  and  all  other  their 
under  officers."     The  Bill  was  read  a  second 


72  NONCONFORMITY 

time  and  referred  to  a  Committee  of  the 
whole  House,  where,  after  long  debate,  it 
remained,  being  obscured  by  more  pressing 
political  matters.  The  debates  showed, 
however,  the  great  desire  for  reform  of  the 
Church  which  now  seemed  to  possess  men  of 
all  parties,  and  the  strength  both  in  numbers 
and  influence  of  those  who  wished  this 
reform  to  proceed  along  scriptural  and 
apostolic  lines. 

It  was  in  the  spring  of  this  same  year  that 
the  King's  most  trusted  adviser,  Strafford,  was 
executed.  Laud  had  also  been  committed 
to  the  Tower  and  was  awaiting  the  same 
fate.  The  Scotch  War  and  the  rebellion  in 
Ireland  had  both  served  to  stimulate  the 
distrust  of  the  King  which  was  now  very 
generally  felt.  While  ecclesiastical  questions 
had  reached  a  kind  of  deadlock  political 
passions  were  rising,  and  the  divisions  which 
were  soon  to  turn  the  country  into  two  armed 
camps  were  making  themselves  felt. 

In  the  autumn  the  House  of  Commons 
Jy»  resolved  to  draw  up  a  grand  Remonstrance 
on  the  state  of  the  kingdom,  which  was 
intended  to  be  at  once  a  warning  to  the 
King  and  his  advisers,  and  an  appeal  to  the 
people.  The  Remonstrance  began  with  an 
exhaustive  review  of  events  during  the 
King's  reign.  It  attributed  the  grievances 
of  which  complaint  was  made  to  Papists, 
Bishops  and  other  evil  counsellors  of  the 
King.   It  detailed  the  hasty  dissolution  of  the 


LAUD  AND  THE  PURITANS        73 

early  Parliaments  of  the  reign,  the  breaches 
of  privilege,  the  forced  loans,  the  tyranny 
of  the  Star  Chamber  and  High  Commission, 
the  deeds  of  Strafford  and  Laud,  and  the 
irregular  ways  of  raising  money,  as  chief 
causes  of  the  grievance  so  widely  felt. 
Against  these  evil  deeds  of  the  Court  it  set 
the  good  deeds  of  Parliament,  and  referred  to 
the  execution  of  Strafford,  the  abolition 
of  arbitrary  Courts,  and  of  illegal  ways  of 
raising  funds,  the  Triennial  Act  and  other 
reforms.  For  the  future  it  outlined  a  pro- 
gramme which  included  a  curtailment  of  the 
temporal  and  political  power  of  the  Bishops, 
the  removing  of  oppressions  in  religion  and 
the  prohibition  of  "  unnecessary  ceremonies." 
It  provided  for  calling  a  synod  of  divines 
to  settle  these  matters,  and  charged  the  King 
to  remove  from  his  councils  all  who  would 
not  carry  out  the  wishes  of  Parliament  as 
thus  defined.  The  debates  on  the  Remon- 
strance were  long  and  fierce,  but  it  was 
eventually  carried  by  a  small  majority. 
Had  it  not  been  carried,  Cromwell  said  "  he 
would  have  sold  all  that  he  had,  and  never 
have  seen  England  any  more."  The  Re- 
monstrance was  presented  to  the  King,  and 
shortly  afterwards  was  published.  It  con- 
stituted an  appeal  against  the  King  to  the 
nation.  The  effect  of  it  was  undoubtedly  to 
strengthen  the  hands  of  the  Puritans.  The 
King  as  usual  temporised,  and  showed  no 
sign  of  complying  with  the  terms  of  Parlia- 


74  NONCONFORMITY 

ment.  His  real  answer  was  the  decision 
to  impeach  the  five  members,  Pym,  Hampden, 
Holies,  Haselrige  and  Strode.  While  the 
Lords  were  debating  the  legality  of  the 
impeachment  the  King  took  the  law  into  his 
own  hands.  On  January  4,  1642,  he  went  to 
the  House  of  Commons  with  an  armed 
force  to  arrest  the  five  members.  Pym, 
who  was  always  well  informed  about  Court 
affairs,  had  received  warning,  and  Charles 
found  that  his  birds  had  flown.  He  had 
committed  a  fatal  blunder,  and  its  failure 
spelt  his  ruin.  From  that  time  forward, 
as  even  Clarendon  admits,  many  of  Charles' 
friends  turned  against  him.  War  was  now 
inevitable,  and  the  few  months  that  inter- 
vened were  spent  by  both  parties  in  trying 
to  find  points  of  advantage.  In  some  respects 
Parliament  was  as  unscrupulous  and  uncon- 
stitutional in  its  action  as  ever  the  King 
had  been.  But  it  had  the  excuse  of  being 
compelled  to  carry  on  the  government  of 
the  country,  and  it  was  hampered  by  the 
fear  of  internal  dissensions,  which  often 
made  bold  and  high-handed  action  the  best 
course.  It  is  doubtful,  however,  whether 
any  other  and  milder  policy  would  have 
had  the  effect  of  delaying  the  war  for  more 
than  a  few  months.  Feeling  on  both  sides 
had  now  reached  the  breaking-point,  and  when 
the  King  set  up  his  standard  at  Nottingham 
on  August  22,  1642,  the  Civil  War  formally 
began. 


LAUD  AND  THE  PURITANS        75 

The    meeting    of    the    Long    Parliament 
marked   the   opening   of   a   new   era   in   our 
national  history.     In  the  early  years  of  the 
Parliament  political  and  religious  ideals  were 
so  inextricably  bound  up  together  that  it  is 
very  difficult  to  distinguish  them.     It  may 
be  said,  indeed,  that  Pym  and  his  friends  had 
no  definite  religious  and  ecclesiastical  policy, 
but  that  they  let  themselves  be  guided  by 
the    course    of    events.     Certain    it    is    that 
many    of    them,    including    Cromwell    and 
Milton,    were   reluctantly    driven   into   their 
Independency.     Opposition  to  Laud  and  his 
policy  on  the  one  hand,  and  dislike  for  the 
Presbyterian  domination  on  the  other,  made 
it  comparatively  easy  for  men  of  clear  vision 
and  spiritual  zeal  to  take  their  stand  with 
the  Separatists.     But  it  would  be  a  mistake 
to  suppose  that  at  the  period  we  have  reached 
there  was  any  organised  attempt  to  change 
the    religion    of    the    country.     There    was 
great  dislike  of  Laud's  innovations  and  great 
resentment  against  his  manner  of  enforcing 
them      Both  Laud  and  the  King  must  be 
acquitted    of   any    intention   to   restore   the 
power    of    the    Papacy,    but    their    political 
alliance    tended    to     increase    the    distrust 
caused    by   their   ecclesiastical    policy.     The 
old  fear  of  Roman  Catholicism  was  by  no 
means    dead,   and    this    helped    to  embitter 
feeling    which    was    already    acute    enough. 
There  was  exaggeration  and  intolerance  on 
both   sides,   and   while   on   both   sides,   too, 


76  NONCONFORMITY 

there  were  men  of  deep  religious  feeling  and 
pure  patriotism,  the  rough-and-tumble  work 
of  the  Revolution  tended  to  give  both  power 
and  place  to  those  of  the  more  unscrupulous 
and  shallow  sort.  In  an  atmosphere  of 
wire-pulling  and  policy  Nonconformists  stand 
to  suffer  most  because  of  the  very  height  of 
their  ideals.  They  have  the  defects  of  their 
qualities,  and  we  shall  see  how  in  the  turmoil 
of  the  Civil  War  and  the  controversies  over 
the  religious  settlement  of  the  country  these 
made  themselves  manifest. 


CHAPTER   V 

PRESBYTERIANS    AND    INDEPENDENTS 

It  was  the  boast  of  King  James  that  he 
"  knew  the  stomach  "  of  the  Scotch  people. 
Though  he  made  himself  supreme  both  in 
Church  and  State,  and  succeeded  in  changing 
Presbytery  into  Episcopacy,  he  did  so  with- 
out any  open  rupture,  and  he  would  prob- 
ably have  altered  his  policy  rather  than 
press  matters  to  an  extreme.  Charles  was 
very  different.  In  religion  he  was  fanati- 
cally insistent  on  his  own  point  of  view,  and 
he  had  no  advisers  round  him  in  England 
who  could  tell  him  when  he  had  gone  too 
far.     His  marriage  with  a  Roman  Catholic 


PRESBYTERIANS  77 

made  him  suspect  in  the  eyes  of  all  good 
Protestants,  and  the  first  acts  of  his  reign  in 
Scotland  did  not  reassure  them.  He  alien- 
ated the  people  by  insisting  on  the  five 
Articles  of  Perth  being  enforced,  viz.,  kneel- 
ing at  communion,  private  communion 
and  baptism  in  cases  of  need,  the  observance 
of  Church  festivals  and  confirmation  by 
Bishops.  He  alienated  the  nobles  by  insist- 
ing on  the  inclusion  and  precedence  of  the 
Bishops  and  Archbishops  in  the  Privy 
Council.  This  bad  impression  was  deepened 
by  the  use  of  the  Anglican  liturgy  at  his 
Coronation  in  Edinburgh,  and  the  feeling 
was  brought  to  a  head  by  the  attempt  to 
impose  the  new  liturgy  on  the  Scotch 
Churches.  They  would  have  nothing  to  do 
with  a  "Popish-English-Scottish-Mass-Service- 
Book,"  reputed  to  be  the  work  of  Laud,  and 
the  historic  riot  in  St.  Giles',  Edinburgh,  on 
the  occasion  of  its  first  introduction,  showed 
the  temper  of  the  people  and  gave  them  the 
signal  they  desired.  With  the  liturgy  went 
the  Book  of  Canons,  which  was  hated  as 
much  for  its  English  as  for  its  Popish  tone, 
and  against  the  two,  petitions  and  protests 
from  all  over  the  country  poured  in  to  the 
Privy  Council.  Charles  refused  to  with- 
draw the  liturgy,  and  ordered  that  all  petitions 
against  it  were  to  be  regarded  as  illegal  and 
to  be  visited  with  the  punishment  of  treason. 
The  popular  answer  to  this  was  the  renewal 
of  the  Covenant  made  under  James.     The 


78  NONCONFORMITY 

basis  of  it  was  the  so-called  "King's  Con- 
fession," which  was  a  repudiation  of  the 
doctrines  and  forms  of  Rome,  with  a  list  of 
the  confirmatory  Acts  of  Parliament.  This 
was  followed  by  an  indictment  of  the  recent 
innovations  and  a  solemn  pledge  to  defend 
the  Crown  and  the  true  faith  of  the  Word  of 
God,  and  to  resist  the  setting  up  of  Bishops 
over  the  Kirk  of  Scotland.  The  signing  of 
this  Covenant  in  the  Greyfriars'  Churchyard 
at  Edinburgh  is  one  of  the  landmarks  of 
Scottish  history.  This  was  in  the  year  1638, 
and  the  General  Assembly  of  the  same  year 
roundly  condemned  the  liturgy  and  deposed 
the  whole  bench  of  Bishops.  Two  years 
later  the  Scottish  Parliament  ordered  every 
one  to  sign  the  Covenant  under  pain  of  civil 
penalties.  This  amounted  to  a  declaration 
of  war  against  the  King.  Charles,  however, 
was  not  ready,  and  sent  the  Marquis  of 
Hamilton  as  Commissioner  to  Scotland  with 
orders  to  gain  time,  writing  to  him  in  the 
following  terms :  "I  give  you  leave  to 
flatter  them  with  what  hopes  you  please, 
so  you  engage  not  me  against  my  grounds, 
and  in  particular,  that  you  consent  neither 
to  the  calling  of  Parliament  nor  General 
Assembly  till  the  Covenant  be  given  up  : 
your  chief  end  being  now  to  save  time  that 
they  may  not  commit  public  follies  until 
I  be  ready  to  suppress  them."  There  was 
not  much  to  be  done  with  a  King  who  could 
write  thus,  and  the  Covenanters  quite  under- 


PRESBYTERIANS  79 

stood  the  situation.  The  indictment  of  the 
Bishops  by  the  General  Assembly  was  their 
answer,  and  meanwhile  they,  as  well  as 
Charles,  m^ade  preparations  for  the  inevitable 
resort  to  force. 

The  two  Bishops'  Wars,  as  they  were  called, 
ended  in  Charles'  buying  off  the  Scots  with  a 
sum  of  £200,000  that  he  might  have  the 
more  leisure  to  attend  to  the  pressing  affairs 
in  England.  But  the  outbreak  of  the  Civil 
War  in  1642  inevitably  involved  the  fortunes 
of  the  Covenanters,  and  for  a  time  both 
Charles  and  the  Parliament  bid  for  their 
help.  Popular  feeling  in  Scotland,  however, 
was  entirely  on  the  side  of  the  Parliament, 
and  resulted  in  the  formation  of  "  the  Solemn 
League  and  Covenant  "  of  1643,  by  which 
the  Parliament  secured  the  help  of  the  Scotch, 
and  the  Scotch  thought  that  they  had 
secured  the  imposition  of  Presbyterianism 
on  England.  The  Scotch  army  was  in 
England  for  three  years  and  contributed 
largely  to  the  victory  of  the  Parliamentarians. 
They  captured  the  King's  person  and  handed 
him  over  to  leaders  of  the  English  army,  on 
the  understanding  that  no  injury  should  be 
done  to  him. 

Meanwhile  the  Scottish  Commissioners  in 
London  had  been  using  all  their  influence  to 
obtain  favour  for  the  Presbyterian  system, 
and  not  without  success.  When  Bishop  Hall 
published  a  reply  to  their  arguments  in 
defence  of  Episcopacy  he  was  answered  by 


80  NONCONFORMITY 

five  English  clergy  —  Stephen  Marshall, 
Edmund  Calamy,  Thomas  Young,  Matthew 
Newcomen  and  William  Spurstow.  Under 
the  pseudonym  "  Smectymnus "  these  men 
published  a  defence  of  Presbyterianism  which 
showed  how  greatly  the  cause  had  advanced 
in  England.  Some  seven  hundred  other 
ministers  endorsed  the  work  and  petitioned 
Parliament  for  reform  of  the  Church  in  a 
Presbyterian  direction.  There  were  not  a  few 
sympathisers  in  the  Long  Parliament,  and 
V  sjf  when,  in  July  1643,  the  Westminster  Assembly 
\/\  of  Divines  was  constituted,  it  contained  a 
'X  very  large  Presbyterian  element.  Of  the 
hundred  and  twenty  divines  in  the  Assembly 
only  five  were  Independents,  and  a  few  Epis- 
copalian, the  rest  being  Calvinists  or  Presby- 
terians. The  appointing  ordinance  directs 
that  these  divines,  together  with  ten  peers 
and  twenty  commoners,  shall  "  confer  and 
treat  among  themselves  of  such  matters  and 
things  touching  and  concerning  the  Liturgy 
and  discipline  and  government  of  the  Church 
of  England,  or  the  vindicating  and  clearing 
of  the  doctrine  of  the  same  from  all  false 
aspersions  and  misconstructions  as  shall  be 
proposed  to  them  by  both  or  either  of  the 
said  Houses  of  Parliament  and  no  other ; 
and  to  deliver  their  opinions  or  advices  of  or 
touching  the  matters  aforesaid,  as  shall  be 
most  agreeable  to  the  word  of  God  to  both 
or  either  of  the  said  Houses  from  time  to 
time,  in  such  manner  and  sort  as  by  either 


PRESBYTERIANS  81 

or  both  of  the  said  Houses  of  Parliament 
shall  be  required."  The  same  ordinance 
appointed  William  Twisse  to  be  Prolocutor 
of  the  Assembly,  and  directed  the  time  and 
place  of  its  meetings.  This  is  important  as 
showing  that  the  Assembly  was  never  intended 
to  be  an  independent  body,  but  merely  a 
register  of  the  wishes  and  opinions  of  the 
Parliament.  The  House  of  Commons  decided 
from  time  to  time  what  questions  were  to  be 
discussed,  and  thus  kept  its  hand  on  the  whole 
conduct  of  the  debates.  Parliament  was  not 
disposed  to  give  up  the  high  function  of 
ruling  and  reforming  the  Church,  and  the 
Assembly,  therefore,  was  merely  a  deliberative 
and  advisory  body.  At  an  early  stage  in  the 
proceedings  the  Episcopalian  members  with- 
drew, and  the  Assembly  became  more  and 
more  a  register  of  Presbyterian  opinion. 
The  five  Independents  who  belonged  to 
it  were  men  of  force  and  learning,  and  they 
took  an  effective  part  in  the  debates  ;  but 
they  were  powerless  to  do  more  than  state 
their  own  opinions.  Their  names  were 
Thomas  Goodwin,  Philip  Nye,  Sidrach  Simp- 
son, Jeremiah  Burroughes  and  William 
Bridge,  and  they  exercised  an  influence  much 
greater  than  their  numbers  would  seem  to 
warrant.  On  joining  the  Assembly  they  made 
their  own  position  clear  in  an  "  Apologetical 
Narration  "  addressed  as  much  to  the  nation 
at  large  as  to  Parliament,  and  in  some  senses 
an  appeal  from  the  Assembly   itself.     They 


82  NONCONFORMITY 

informed  the  Houses  of  Parliament  that 
they  had  been  driven  into  exile  by  the 
sinful  evils  and  corruptions  of  the  Church, 
and  that,  during  their  exile,  they  had  en- 
deavoured to  search  out  the  Apostolic 
direction  and  example  as  to  the  Primitive 
Church  order.  They  therefore  laid  down 
three  principles:  (1)  that  Primitive  practice 
in  the  Church  should  be  the  supreme  rule ; 
(2)  that  present  judgment  and  practice  should 
not  be  made  a  binding  law  for  the  future,  i.e. 
they  wished  to  allow  for  toleration ;  (3)  that 
in  matters  of  controversy  the  safe  course 
was  to  adopt  those  practices  which  the  greater 
part  of  the  Reformed  Churches  acknowledged 
to  be  warrantable,  e.g.  that  communion 
should  be  restricted  to  the  "  faithful  "  and 
that  extempore  prayer  should  be  allowed. 
The  general  effect  of  this  was  that  the  In- 
dependents claimed  to  be  right  as  far  as  their 
position  went,  but  they  were  willing  to  admit 
that  it  might  be  expedient  to  go  farther. 
In  the  Assembly  itself  they  had  strong  allies 
in  Oliver  St.  John,  Sir  Harry  Vane  and  Lord 
Saye  and  Sele.  Of  the  Presbyterians  the 
leading  spirits  were  the  five  men  who  were 
responsible  for  "  Smectymnus,"  while  there 
was  a  third  party,  who  might  be  called 
Erastians,  led  by  Coleman  and  Lightfoot 
among  the  divines,  and  by  Selden  and 
Whitelock  among  laymen.  These  took  the 
position  of  Hooker,  asserting  that  every 
Englishman  is  necessarily  a  member  of  the 


PRESBYTERIANS  83 

Church  of  England,  and  that  the  magistrate  is 
supreme  in  the  Church  as  in  the  nation.  In 
addition  to  these  various  parties  there  were 
the  Scottish  Commissioners  to  be  reckoned 
with,  and  they,  of  course,  took  a  strongly 
Presbyterian  attitude.  They  had  no  votes, 
but  were  able  to  take  part  in  the  discussions. 
They  had  brought  with  them  from  Scotland 
the  text  of  the  Solemn  League  and  Covenant. 
It  was  discussed  in  the  Assembly  and,  after 
some  debate,  was  sworn  to  by  both  Houses  of 
Parliament,  and  in  the  following  year  was 
imposed  on  all  persons  over  eighteen  years 
of  age.  Those  who  refused  it  were  to  be 
counted  malignants.  There  is  no  doubt 
as  to  the  reluctance  with  which  the  In- 
dependents took  this  course.  For  the  time 
being  they  acquiesced ;  but  it  was  altogether 
against  their  ideas  of  liberty,  and  the  en- 
forcing of  the  Covenant  became  one  of  their 
grievances.  They  discovered  in  time,  as 
Milton  said,  that  "  new  presbyter "  was 
but  "  old  priest  writ  large." 

The  work  of  the  Assembly  began  with  the 
revision  of  the  first  fifteen  Articles  of  the 
Church  of  England  and  the  introduction  into 
them  of  certain  changes  in  a  Calvinistic 
direction.  Instead  of  completing  the  work 
on  the  Articles,  Parliament,  in  consequence 
of  the  agreement  with  the  Scots,  then  directed 
the  Assembly  to  deal  with  the  question  of 
Church  government  and  to  bring  the  English 
system    into    closer    conformity    with    the 


84  NONCONFORMITY 

Scottish.  In  dealing  with  this  matter  the 
Scottish  Commissioners  claimed  the  right  to 
be  regarded  as  an  independent  body,  and  the 
Assembly  dealt  with  the  points  which  they 
suggested  after  private  discussion  among 
themselves.  In  the  debates  that  follov/ed 
the  bitter  antagonism  between  Independents 
and  Presbyterians  became  manifest.  The 
Independents  were  hopelessly  outnumbered, 
and  the  Assembly  reported  to  Parliament 
in  favour  of  the  Presbyterian  system.  On 
questions  of  discipline  Parliament  insisted 
on  retaining  the  final  appeal  in  its  own 
hands,  and  it  became  evident  that  whatever 
form  of  Church  government  might  be  set 
up,  it  would  not  be  allowed  to  be  independent 
of  the  State.  This  was  undoubtedly  a  dis- 
appointment to  the  divines  in  the  Assembly, 
whether  Presbyterian  or  Independent.  In 
the  same  way  Parliament  retained  in  its  own 
hands  the  nomination  of  those  who,  under 
the  new  system,  were  to  be  authorised  to 
exercise  the  power  of  ordination. 

In  its   Directory   for   Public   Worship   the 

Assembly   abolished   the    Book    of    Common 

.Prayer  and  made  copious  suggestions  as  to 

V  the  proper  topics  of  prayer  to  take  its  place. 

When   the   Directory   came   to   be   enforced 

yinore  than  a  thousand  ministers  refused  to 

V^  accept  it,  and  were  deprived  of  their  cures. 

/ /The    doctrinal   work    of    the    Assembly   was 

\/  comprised  in  the  Longer  and  Shorter  Cate- 

./\  chisms,    and    the    Westminster    Confession. 


PRESBYTERIANS  85 

On    these    both    Independents    and    Presby-  ^ 
terians  were  fairly  agreed.     They  set  forth  ^ 
the  moderate  form  of  Calvinism  which,  until  ^ 
comparatively    recently,    was    generally    ac-  \/ 
cepted  among   the  Nonconformist  Churches. 
They  enforce  the  Puritan  view  of  the  Sabbath 
and  give  to  the  magistrate  power  to  suppress      > 
blasphemies  and  heresies.     The  chief  tangible  ■>^ 
result  of  the  Assembly  was  the  gift  to  the 
Scotch  Churches  of  the  Shorter  Catechism  and 
the    Confession.     The    attempt    to    set    up 
Presby terianism   in   England   was   a   failure, 
and  indeed  was  never  carried  out  at  all  save 
in  one  or  two    counties.     The  work  of    the    / 
Assembly  was  too  much  under  the  hand  of 
the   Parliament,    and   its   deliberations   were 
too  largely  influenced  by  political  considera- 
tions.    Milton    puts    it    strongly    when    he 
speaks   of    "  Plots   and  packing   worse   than    / 
those  of    Trent,"  but    there  was    no  doubt  X 
justification  for  such  words. 

As  the  debates  in  the  Assembly  proceeded, 
and  as  the  Presbyterian  ascendancy  in 
Parliament  grew  more  pronounced,  the 
dominant  party  became  increasingly  in- 
tolerant. The  time  was  one  of  great  religious 
ferment,  and  gatherings  of  Anabaptists  and 
other  sectaries  became  frequent.  These 
were  regarded  by  the  Scotch  with  horror  and 
detestation,  and  their  English  allies  came 
to  share  their  feelings.  In  their  passion  for 
system  and  order,  and  in  their  desire  to 
impose  the  Covenant  on  all  and  sundry,  they 


86  NONCONFORMITY 

were  led  to  condemn,  and  to  seek  to  prohibit, 
all  other  systems.  It  was  probably  as  a 
concession  to  the  temper  of  the  Scotch  that 
in  1645  Parliament  ordered  the  execution  of 
Laud,  now  an  old  man  and  worn  by  long 
imprisonment.  It  was  a  cruel  and  unneces- 
sary act  of  vengeance. 

We  must  now  turn  to  the  course  of  events 
outside.  While  Presbyterianism  had  been 
gathering  strength  in  the  Parliament,  Inde- 
pendency was  growing  in  the  army,  and  to 
some  extent  in  the  country  at  large.  The 
languid  prosecution  of  the  war  under  Essex 
was  put  an  end  to  by  Cromwell ;  and  his 
new  model  army  began  to  encourage  the 
Parliamentarians  with  the  hope  of  a  victory 
at  last.  Cromwell,  though  he  signed  the 
solemn  League  and  Covenant,  had  never 
been  whole  hearted  in  its  support,  and  had 
followed  with  the  utmost  sympathy  the 
struggles  and  protests  of  the  Independent 
members  in  the  Westminster  Assembly. 
Indeed,  it  may  be  said  that  the  course  of 
the  debates  there,  along  with  events  in 
Parliament,  were  responsible  for  the  final 
conversion  of  both  Cromwell  and  Milton  to 
Independency  of  a  very  pronounced  type. 
In  making  up  his  "  lovely  company "  of 
troopers  too,  Cromwell  discovered  that  the 
men  on  whom  he  could  rely  for  zeal  and 
morals  were,  generally  speaking,  neither 
Episcopalians  nor  Presbyterians,  but  Inde- 
pendents   and    sectaries    of    various    kinds. 


PRESBYTERIANS  87 

He  soon  learnt  to  be  indifferent  to  their 
religious  persuasion,  if  only  they  showed 
themselves  honest  men  and  good  soldiers. 
Milton,  at  the  same  time,  was  largely  in- 
fluenced by  the  parliamentary  attitude 
towards  the  press,  and,  in  his  condemnation 
of  it,  took  up  the  position  of  Independency 
and  toleration  in  its  strongest  form.  As  the 
new  army  went  from  victory  to  victory, 
from  Marston  Moor  to  Newbury,  and  from 
Newbury  to  Naseby,  the  opinions  it  repre- 
sented assumed  a  greater  importance,  and 
its  leader  became  more  and  more  a  man  of 
account. 

It  was  no  doubt  in  the  army  first  that  the 
new  spiritual  force  that  had  long  been  gather- 
ing among  the  people  made  itself  felt.  Crom- 
well focussed  it,  and  gave  expression  to  it 
in  the  councils  of  the  nation,  but  the  thing 
was  not  of  his  doing,  nor  of  any  man's.  The 
new  spirit  showed  itself  in  some  very  un- 
couth forms,  but  it  belongs  to  the  movement 
of  the  times,  and  was  the  needed  reaction 
against  a  rehgion  of  formalism.  What  it 
meant  to  the  milder  and  more  orthodox  is 
well  described  by  Baxter:  "We  that  lived 
quietly  at  Coventry  did  keep  to  our  old 
principles  :  we  were  unfeignedly  for  King 
and  Parliament ;  we  believed  the  war  was 
only  to  save  the  Parliament  and  Kingdom 
from  Papists  and  delinquents  and  to  remove 
the  dividers,  that  the  King  might  return 
again  to  his  Parliament,  and  that  no  changes 


88  NONCONFORMITY 

might  be  made  in  religion  but  with  his  con- 
sent. But  when  I  came  to  the  army  among 
CromweH's  soldiers,  I  found  a  new  face  of 
things  which  I  never  dreamt  of.  The  plotting 
heads  were  very  hot  upon  that  which  inti- 
mated their  intentions  to  subvert  Church 
and  State.  Independency  and  Anabaptistry 
were  most  prevalent.  Antinomianism  and 
Arminianism  were  equally  distributed."  But 
the  men  thus  described  were  not  mere 
destructives.  If  they  were  bent  on  puUing 
down,  it  was  but  that  they  might  plant  and 
build.  Cromwell,  at  least,  had  far-seeing 
and  practical  aims.  He  was  what  Lord 
Rosebery  has  called  "that  most  dangerous 
combination,"  a  practical  man  and  a  mystic. 
He  had  no  selfish  ends  to  serve,  but  he  did 
not  scruple  to  advance  himself  when  he 
thought  that  in  that  way  he  could  best 
advance  his  cause.  He  and  his  army  were 
an  instrument  in  the  hands  of  God.  He 
believed  this  sincerely,  and  yet  he  never 
yielded  to  the  practical  dangers  of  such  a 
belief.  He  did  not  turn  the  army  into  an 
exclusive  religious  sect,  but,  as  Baxter  again 
testifies,  "was  for  the  equal  liberty  of  all." 
It  was  in  this  spirit  that  he  viewed  with 
great  misgiving  the  growing  intolerance 
of  the  Presbyterian  majority.  After  the 
storming  of  Bristol,  he  wrote  to  the  Speaker 
of  the  House  of  Commons  in  the  following 
memorable  terms :  "  Sir,  they  that  have 
been  employed  in    this    service  know  that 


PRESBYTERIANS  89 

faith  and  prayer  obtained  this  city  for  you. 
I  do  not  say  ours  only,  but  of  the  people  of 
God  with  you  and  all  England  over,  who 
have  wrestled  with  God  for  a  blessing  in  this 
very  thing.  Our  desires  are  that  God  may 
be  glorified  by  the  same  spirit  of  faith  by 
which  we  ask  all  our  sufficiency  and  have 
received  it.  It  is  meet  that  He  have  all  the 
praise.  Presbyterians  and  Independents,  all 
have  the  same  spirit  of  faith  and  prayer  ; 
the  same  presence  and  answer  ;  they  agree 
here,  have  no  names  of  difference  ;  pity  it  is 
it  should  be  otherwise  anywhere  !  All  that 
believe  have  the  real  unity  which  is  most 
glorious  :  because  inward  and  spiritual  in 
the  body  and  to  the  head.  For  being  united 
in  forms,  commonly  called  uniformity,  every 
Christian  will  for  peace-sake  study  and  do 
as  far  as  conscience  will  permit.  And  for 
brethren,  in  things  of  the  mind,  we  look  for 
no  compulsion  but  that  of  Hght  and  reason." 
By  this  time  the  army  had  put  the  Parlia- 
ment into  a  fairly  secure  position.  The 
King  was  in  the  hands  of  the  Scotch,  and 
his  cause  for  the  time  being  was  lost.  Now 
began  the  weary  struggle  between  the  Pres- 
byterian majority  in  Parliament  and  the 
Independents  in  the  army  for  the  chief  place 
in  the  councils  of  the  nation.  The  Presby- 
terians were  all  for  the  maintenance  of  the 
monarchy,  and  were  generally  on  the  side  of 
the  gentry  and  the  established  order.  They 
looked    on   the    army   as    representing   sec- 


90  NONCONFORMITY 

tarianism  and  democracy  in  the  most  objec- 
tionable form.  But,  though  this  was  true 
enough,  there  were  men  in  the  army  who 
"knew  what  they  had  fought  for  and  loved 
what  they  knew,"  and  who  refused  to  be 
coerced  or  cajoled  into  accepting  any- 
thing less  than  full  religious  liberty.  Of 
their  leaders  Marten  alone  was  a  convinced 
Republican,  but  he  influenced  others,  and 
the  conduct  of  the  King  made  them  easy 
converts.  The  withdrawal  of  the  Scotch 
and  the  transference  of  the  King  to  the 
custody  of  Parliament  gave  the  Presbyterians 
a  momentary  advantage.  They  now  began 
to  seek  a  reconciliation  with  Charles  and  to 
concert  measures  for  disbanding  the  army. 
If  Charles  had  been  wise  enough  to  close 
with  the  Presbyterians  in  anything  like  a 
sincere  spirit,  the  war  might  have  had  a 
very  different  issue,  and  the  monarchy 
might  have  been  saved.  But  he  was  hardly 
capable  of  straightforward  action.  He  pre- 
ferred the  subtler  method  of  playing  off  his 
opponents  the  one  against  the  other,  with 
the  result  that  neither  could  trust  him  any 
longer.  One  cannot  here  trace  out  the  long 
and  tangled  story  of  the  negotiations.  Suffice 
it  to  say  that  the  army  became  more  and 
more  impatient,  and  ended  by  taking  com- 
mand of  the  situation.  It  had  the  advantage 
of  knowing  its  own  mind  and  being  ready  to 
act  decisively  when  the  occasion  arose.  The 
various  regiments  had  elected  representatives 


PRESBYTERIANS  91 

to  a  General  Army  Council  which  became  prac- 
tically a  second  Parliament,  far  more  demo- 
cratic and  even  revolutionary  than  the  one 
which  sat  at  Westminster.  Their  military 
strength  was  their  warrant,  and  they  used 
it  to  get  possession  of  the  King,  and,  with 
him  in  their  hands,  to  dictate  their  terms. 
They  were  prepared  for  a  religious  settle- 
ment which  would  allow  the  continued  use 
of  the  Book  of  Common  Prayer,  but  would 
not  suffer  compulsory  imposition  of  the 
Covenant.  Charles  played  with  them  until 
they  were  driven  to  give  up  all  hope  of  him. 
The  negotiations  were  conducted  by  Cromwell 
and  Ireton,  and  it  has  been  generally  sup- 
posed that  the  former  was  all  the  time  work- 
ing for  his  own  hand.  When  the  King 
escaped  from  Hampton  Court  to  the  Isle  of 
Wight  it  is  believed  that  Cromwell  connived 
at  the  escape  for  his  own  purposes.  There 
is  really  no  evidence  for  this  at  all,  though 
it  is  probably  true  that  Cromwell  took  steps 
to  intercept  the  King's  correspondence,  so  as 
to  prove  without  doubt  the  full  measure  of 
his  double-dealing.  But  meanwhile  feeling 
in  the  army  was  getting  out  of  hand.  The 
religious  spirit  there,  which  found  vent  in 
prayer-meetings  and  field-preachings,  became 
more  and  more  intolerant  of  the  royal  delays 
and  deceits  on  the  one  hand,  and  the  mild 
measures  proposed  by  the  Presbyterian 
majority  in  Parliament  on  the  other.  Certain 
regiments    broke    out    into    open    mutiny. 


92  NONCONFORMITY 

demanding  the  arrears  of  their  pay  and  an 
indemnity,  and  the  calHng  of  a  new  Parlia- 
ment. Cromwell  and  Fairfax  put  down  the 
mutiny  with  an  iron  hand,  but  it  was  at  the 
price  of  promising  that  they  would  not  go 
any  farther  in  "  carnal  conferences "  with 
the  King.  The  Parliament,  in  which  Inde- 
pendency now  became  for  the  moment 
predominant,  sent  an  ultimatum  to  the  King 
which  should  secure  the  entire  supremacy  of 
the  commons.  He  replied  by  an  agreement 
with  the  Scotch  in  which  he  promised  to 
establish  Presbyterianism,  and  they  to 
set  him  free  from  the  sectaries  and  restore 
him  to  London.  This  practically  sealed  his 
fate.  The  army  turned  to  put  down  scattered 
royalist  risings  and  to  prevent  the  incursion 
of  the  Scotch.  Colonel  Pride  purged  the 
Parliament  of  royalist  sympathisers,  and  a 
military  republic  was  established  whose  first 
act  was  necessarily  the  trial  of  the  King  for 
treason  against  his  people.  That  he  should 
be  condemned  was  one  of  the  bitter  fruits  of 
circumstances,  and  the  times  were  such  that 
his  condemnation  could  only  be  followed  by 
his  execution. 

The  Independents  were  now  supreme,  and 
had  an  irresistible  force  at  their  command. 
They  used  it  with  great  moderation.  Fifteen 
nobles  were  banished  and  had  their  property 
confiscated.  A  few  were  imprisoned,  and 
only  four  were  put  to  death.  Parliament 
constituted   itself   the   ruling   power   in   the 


PRESBYTERIANS  93 

State,  and  England  became  a  commonwealth. 
But  in  spite  of  everything,  the  reaction  im- 
mediately began.  The  army  was  soon  hard 
at  work  suppressing  scattered  royalist  risings, 
and  Cromwell  himself  had  to  take  the  field 
in  Scotland.  The  Scotch  repudiated  the 
execution  of  the  King  with  horror,  and  were 
ready  at  once  to  avenge  him.  Cromwell's 
military  genius  saved  the  situation  for  the 
time  being,  but  neither  he  nor  any  other 
man  could  save  the  Parliament  from  the 
legitimate  consequences  of  a  hasty  and  pre- 
matm'e  policy.  In  the  name  of  liberty  they 
had  acted  in  a  fashion  which  the  most  care- 
less observer  could  not  fail  to  perceive  was 
both  arbitrary  and  despotic.  The  few  men 
of  strong  feeling  and  clear  opinions  had 
dominated  the  majority,  and  these  had  been 
brought  to  acquiesce  in  their  action  by  force. 
That  the  leaders  in  the  main  were  con- 
scientious and  high-minded  men  there  is  no 
reason  to  doubt,  but  they  were  before  their 
time  and  their  logic  was  too  strictly  applied. 
The  Puritan  spirit  belonged  to  the  elect 
among  the  people,  and  the  commons  at 
large  would  have  none  of  it.  Nor  was  the 
Puritan  spirit  altogether  unharmed  by 
success.  It  soon  become  censorious,  and  in 
its  efforts  to  bring  about  a  better  state  of 
things  denied  the  very  liberty  by  which  it 
professed  to  live.  The  English  people  were 
in  no  sense  ready  to  become  Republicans.  As 
Milton  says  of  them,  "  With  a  besotted  and 


94  NONCONFORMITY 

degenerate  baseness  of  spirit,  except  some 
few  who  yet  retain  in  them  the  old  English 
fortitude  and  love  of  freedom,  imbastardised 
from  the  ancient  nobleness  of  their  ancestors, 
(they)  are  ready  to  fall  flat  and  give  adoration 
to  the  image  and  memory  of  this  man,  who 
hath  more  put  tyranny  into  an  act  than  any 
British  king  before  him."  However  regrettable 
this  may  have  been,  it  was  perfectly  true,  and 
it  goes  far  to  explain  the  fact  that  the  work 
of  the  Independents  was  never  more  than  half 
.done  and  that  the  reaction  followed  so  swiftly. 
y/  An  important  landmark  in  the  history  of  the 
^Free  Churches  is  the  Conference  of  Inde- 
X,  pendents  which  was  held  at  the  Savoy  in 
1658  with  the  express  purpose  of  framing 
an  authoritative  declaration  of  their  faith 
and  order.  The  Conference  was  attended 
by  two  hundred  delegates,  most  of  whom 
were  laymen,  and  their  agreement  was  so 
marked  that  they  regarded  it  as  the  special 
work  of  the  Holy  Ghost.  True  to  their 
historic  principles,  however,  they  made  it 
quite  plain  that  they  did  not  intend  their 
confession  to  be  regarded  as  a  binding  creed. 
"  Whatever  is  of  force  or  constraint  in  matters 
of  this  nature,  causeth  them  to  degenerate 
from  the  name  and  nature  of  Confessions  ; 
and  turns  them  from  being  Confessions  of 
Faith  into  Exactions  and  Impositions  of 
faith."  The  doctrinal  clauses  of  the  Con- 
fession differ  little  from  those  of  the  West- 
minster   Assembly.     They    show    that    the 


PRESBYTERIANS  95 

Congregational  Churches  of  the  period  were 
thoroughly  Calvinistic,  and  the  position  is 
laid  down  in  language  of  unmistakable  strength 
and  clearness.  The  ecclesiastical  clauses  give 
a  full  and  considered  statement  of  the  Con- 
gregational position  as  laid  down  by- 
Browne  and  Barrow,  maintaining  the  sole 
rule  of  Christ  over  His  Church  ;  its  independ- 
ence of  the  secular  power  ;  the  purity  of  its 
membership,  and  the  spiritual  autonomy  of 
each  individual  community.  The  work  of 
this  Conference  is  a  good  illustration  of  the 
vigorous  life  of  Independency  even  in  times 
of  great  political  distraction. 


CHAPTER  VI 

THE   QUAKERS 

The  Civil  War  in  England  resulted  in  large 
measure  from  the  religious  enlightenment 
that  had  been  slowly  spreading  among  the 
people.  To  use  the  familiar  phrase  of  J.  R. 
Green,  the  English  people  had  become  the 
people  of  a  book,  and  that  book  the  Bible. 
They  had  learnt  from  it  to  attach  a  new 
importance  to  the  individual,  and  to  revolt 
against  the  claim  of  either  Church  or  ruler 
to  supreme  authority  over  the  soul  of  man. 
But  they  had  learnt  also  to  judge  and  measure 


96  NONCONFORMITY 

things  almost  too  exclusively  from  the  stand- 
point of  religion.     The  result  was  not  merely 
a  great  religious  awakening,  but  a  political  and 
social    revolution    in    which    religion    played 
a  very  conspicuous  part.     The  issue  was  not 
without    serious    results    for    religion    itself. 
The   political   action   that   was   forced   both 
upon   Presbyterians  and  Independents  could 
not     but     interfere     with     their     religious 
witness.     Each   party  in  turn   set   itself   up 
as  supreme,  and  each   condescended   to   use 
weapons  which  were  far  from  spiritual  in  their 
nature.     At  the  same  time  the  controversies 
of  the  hour  drove  them  to  make  statements 
of  their  theological  position  which  tended  to 
assume  an  ever-increasing  degree  of  rigidity. 
The  Presbyterian  would  have  nothing  to  do 
with  tolerance.     It  was  "  a  city  of  refuge  in 
men's  consciences  for  the  devil  to   fly  to." 
Baxter  held  that  "  unlimited  toleration  was 
to    be    abhorred,"    and    Edwards,  the    great 
Presbyterian  apologist,  wrote  in  his  Gangrcena : 
"  A  toleration  is  the  grand  design  of  the  devil 
— it  is  the   most  transcendent,  catholic  and 
fundamental  evil  for  this  kingdom — as  original 
sin  is  the  most  fundamental  sin."     Even  the 
Independents    who    pleaded    for    toleration 
most   eloquently,    and   practised   it   in   very 
large  measure,   were  not  prepared  to  carry 
it  out  in  the  case  of  all  those  v/ho  differed 
from  them.     It  was  this  stiffening  both  in 
doctrine    and    practice,    forced    upon    some 
of  the  best  men  of  the  time  by  the  circum- 


THE  QUAKERS  97 

stances  in  which  they  found  themselves,  that 
led  to  a  second  type  of  religious  revolt  that 
has  had  very  important  results  for  the  history 
of  Nonconformity. 

All  over  the  country  men  of  the  Puritan 
temper  were  to  be  found  who  deplored  and 
resented  what  they  believed  to  be  the  depar- 
ture from  the  pure  doctrine  of  the  Word  on  the 
part  of  many  of  their  leaders.  At  the  same 
time  they  sought  for  themselves  an  expression 
of  their  religious  needs  and  feelings  which 
should  be  more  in  accordance  with  revealed 
truth  as  they  conceived  it  than  what  they 
found  in  many  of  the  formal  and  stilted 
services  of  the  Puritans.  For  it  must  be 
admitted  that  Puritanism  itself  cannot  escape 
the  charge  of  formality.  There  is  abundant 
contemporary  evidence  to  show  that  the 
Puritan  forms  of  worship  often  tended  to  be 
as  stereotyped  and  hard  as  anything  that  was 
to  be  found  in  the  Anghcan  Church.  The 
Puritans  themselves  also  became  very  in- 
tolerant of  departures  from  the  recognised 
order  whether  in  theology  or  worship,  and, 
as  the  sequel  will  show,  used  their  opportunity 
to  crush  them  with  cruel  severity.  Neverthe- 
less, the  new  spirit  that  was  abroad  in  the  land 
would  not  be  crushed,  and  when  the  official 
and  leading  sections  of  Nonconformity  made 
concessions  to  the  spirit  of  order  and  discipUne 
there  were  many  left  in  Israel  who  did  not 
bow  the  knee  to  Baal.  We  read  of  Seekers, 
Ranters,  Anabaptists,  Fifth  Monarchy  men 


98  NONCONFORMITY 

and  the  like,  all  of  whom  were  openly  dis- 
contented with  the  average  religious  ex- 
pression of  their  time,  and  all  of  whom  were 
more  or  less  inclined  to  fanaticism.  They 
gave  way  to  the  greatest  extravagances,  and 
most  of  them  never  reached  any  other 
position  than  that  of  rather  barren  protest. 

The  revolt  which  they  represented,  how- 
ever, was  a  real  thing,  and  found  for  itself 
some  lasting  forms  of  expression.  It  was 
just  at  the  time  that  Puritanism  was  becoming 
official  and  more  formal  that  Quakerism  began 
to  be.  It  is  a  mistake  to  think  that  it  arose 
in  any  way  from  the  sects  just  mentioned,  or 
that  it  was  in  any  sense  affiliated  with  them. 
It  did,  however,  spring  from  the  same  spirit 
of  revolt  and  resentment.  It  was  a  fresh 
protest  in  favour  of  the  genuine  Nonconformist 
ideal  and  gave  a  very  clear  witness  on  its 
behalf. 

Like  other  religious  movements,  Quakerism 
was  the  work  of  one  man.  But  if  we  regard 
George  Fox  as  its  founder,  it  is  only  in  the  sense 
that  his  vivid  rehgious  experience  enabled 
him  to  focus  and  give  expression  to  ideas  and 
aspirations  which  were  common  to  many 
in  his  day.  No  man  was  ever  less  conscious 
than  he  was  of  becoming  the  leader  in  a 
great  movement.  He  obeyed  the  impulses 
of  his  own  spirit  or  of  the  inward  light  given 
to  him,  and  if  he  found  many  who  were 
ready  to  receive  the  word  from  him  and  to 
follow  where  he  led,  this  he  would  attribute 


THE  QUAKERS  99 

as  much  to  the  preparedness  of  the  time  as 
to  anything  which  he  said  or  did.  He  met 
the  prevaiHng  rehgious  temper  among  the 
more  serious,  who  were  weary  of  the  formaUsm 
around  them,  and  sought  something  deeper 
and  more  real  than  the  theological  disputations 
with  which  the  pulpits  of  the  time  resounded. 
The  appeal  of  Fox — a  man  of  keen  mother-wit 
rather  than  learning — to  the  witness  of  God 
in  their  souls  was  what  many  had  been 
waiting  to  hear,  and  they  responded  to  it 
with  eagerness. 

Fox  was  born  of  a  middle-class  Puritan 
family  in  Leicestershire.  He  was  known  as 
a  clean-minded,  conscientious  young  man 
who  when  he  said  a  thing  meant  it.  His 
religious  awakening  came  through  being 
invited  to  join  in  a  drinking  bout  by  some 
friends  who  were  "  professors,"  i.e.  Puritan. 
The  incongruity  of  the  thing  struck  him,  and 
he  spent  long  hours  praying  for  a  better  way 
than  that  of  this  religion  which  was  no 
religion  at  all.  *'Then,"  he  says,  *' at  the 
command  of  God,  on  the  ninth  day  of  the 
seventh  month  1643  I  left  my  relations  and 
broke  off  all  familiarity  of  fellowship  with 
old  or  young."  He  became  a  wanderer  on 
the  face  of  the  earth,  till  gradually  light  broke 
upon  him,  and  he  began  to  hear  the  voice  of 
God  for  himself.  He  learnt  that  "  to  be 
bred  at  Oxford  or  Cambridge  was  not  enough 
to  fit  and  qualify  men  to  be  ministers  of 
Jesus  Christ,"  that   God  did  not  dwell  in 

D  2 


100  NONCONFORMITY 

temples  made  with  hands,  and  that  Christ 
would  Himself  speak  directly  to  the  con- 
dition of  the  troubled  soul.  He  became 
conscious  of  the  inward  presence  of  the  Spirit 
of  God  leading  him  in  the  way  of  light  and 
truth.  He  found  here  a  "  secret  anchor " 
of  the  soul  which  sustained  him  amid  all 
temptations  and  trials  and  gave  him  a  deep 
sense  of  assurance. 

To  bear  witness  to  these  truths  and  to 
the  peace  which  they  brought  with  them, 
became  now  Fox's  life-work.  He  began  the 
long  itinerating  ministry  which  ended  only 
with  his  death,  and  in  the  course  of  which 
he  endured  hardship  and  persecution  with  a 
faith  and  a  confidence  that  nothing  could 
daunt.  He  found  audiences  in  meetings  of 
Independents  and  Baptists,  and  sometimes 
even  in  the  parish  churches,  where  it  was 
no  unusual  thing  to  allow  a  stranger  to  have 
his  say  at  the  close  of  the  regular  sermon.  As 
may  be  supposed,  he  met  with  a  very  mixed 
reception.  One  of  his  earliest  experiences 
was  in  Manchester,  where,  he  says,  "  Some 
were  convinced  who  received  the  Lord's 
teaching  by  which  they  were  confirmed  and 
stood  in  the  truth.  But  the  professors  were 
in  a  rage,  all  pleading  for  sin  and  imperfection, 
and  could  not  endure  to  hear  talk  of  per- 
fection and  of  a  holy  and  sinless  life."  It 
was  generally  thus.  Wherever  he  went 
there  were  those  to  whom  his  teaching  was 
like  seed  falling  on  prepared  ground,  while 


THE  QUAKERS  101 

others  found  it  something  entirely  subversive 
of  the  Christianity  they  knew  and  professed. 
Fox  himself  was  keenly  sensitive  to  the  mis- 
chief of  a  religion  which,  with  all  its  excessive 
sense  of  sin  and  harshness  of  judgment 
against  sinners,  could  yet  allow  so  deep 
a  gulf  between  profession  and  practice 
as  he  had  found.  In  this  respect  he  raised 
a  needed  and  healthy  protest.  There  is  no 
doubt,  however,  that  the  effect  of  it  was 
marred  by  certain  extravagances.  The  early 
Quakers  were  nothing  if  not  logical  and 
thorough.  They  believed  in  the  brotherhood 
of  man  and  in  the  equality  of  men  before 
God.  They  must  therefore  witness  to  their 
belief  by  refusing  to  take  off  their  hats  to 
high  or  low,  or  to  "  bow  or  scrape  with  the 
leg  "  to  any  one.  "  Oh  the  blows,  punchings, 
beatings  and  imprisonments  we  underwent 
for  not  putting  off  our  hats  to  men.  The 
bad  language  and  evil  usage  we  received  on 
this  account  are  hard  to  be  expressed,  be- 
sides the  danger  we  were  sometimes  in  of 
losing  our  lives  for  this  matter,  and  that  by 
the  great  professors  of  Christianity,  who 
thereby  evinced  that  they  were  not  true 
believers."  This  tendency  to  judge  by  the 
fruits  was  by  no  means  acceptable  in  Churches 
where  religion  had  become  formal  and  had 
lost  much  of  its  savour. 

But  it  was  not  only  in  the  Churches  that 
Fox  made  himself  felt.  As  he  went  up  and 
down  the  country  he  dealt  fearlessly  with  the 


102  NONCONFORMITY 

many  social  evils  he  saw  around  him.  He 
would  raise  his  voice  for  temperance  and 
moderation  in  inns  and  hostels.  He  pleaded 
for  justice  and  mercy  in  courts  of  law,  for 
fair  dealing  and  honesty  in  shops  and 
markets.  He  had  all  the  Puritan  dislike  of 
stage  plays  and  dances.  In  this  period  both 
alike  were  made  ministers  of  evil  passions^ 
and  though  his  protest  was  quite  undis- 
criminating  it  was  certainly  not  uncalled  for. 
Nothing  gave  him  more  distress  than  the  low 
moral  and  spiritual  condition  of  the  Churches 
and  ministers.  Probably  his  judgment  of 
them  was  influenced  by  his  own  high  standard, 
but  there  is  no  doubt  that  their  formality  and 
worldliness  left  much  to  be  desired.  In  many 
cases,  too,  in  spite  of  the  efforts  of  Cromwell's 
Major-Generals  and  Triers,  both  drunkenness 
and  immorality  were  to  be  found  among 
those  entrusted  with  the  cure  of  souls. 

The  peace  principles  for  which  the  Quakers 
have  ever  been  famous  were  first  inculcated 
by  Fox.    He  refused  to  enlist  in  the  Common- 
wealth army,   on  the  ground  that  no  man 
was  justified  in  taking  the  oath  of  obedience, 
ii'urther,  he  says,  "  I  told  them  I  knew  from 
/whence  all  wars  arose,  even  from  the  lust, 
/  according  to  James'   doctrine  :    and  that   I 
/  lived  in  the  virtue  of  that  life  and  power  that 
V   took  away  the  occasion  of  all  wars."     It  was 
also  his  view  of  the  authority  of  Christ  within 
which  led  him  utterly  to  repudiate  the  rule 
of  the  State  or  its  representatives  in  religious 


THE  QUAKERS  103 

things.  In  this  respect,  as  in  others,  the 
Quakers  carried  the  Nonconformist  principles 
to  logical  conclusions  from  which  many  of 
their  contemporaries  shrank. 

The  story  of  Fox  and  his  friends  is  a  long 
record  of  labours  and  persecutions.  They 
were  essentially  a  missionary  people.  The 
light  of  Christ  which  they  knew  was,  they 
believed,  for  all  men  and  they  were  compelled 
to  make  it  known.  They  had  against  them 
the  whole  weight  of  public  opinion  backed 
by  the  authorities  both  of  Church  and  State, 
yet  they  did  not  hesitate  to  give  their  testi- 
mony. They  were  whipped  and  imprisoned 
and  many  of  them  were  killed,  but  they  perse- 
vered. In  America  they  were  persecuted 
with  horrible  cruelty  by  Independents  and 
Presbyterians  alike.  No  doubt  they  were  not 
easy  to  understand,  and  the  externals  of 
their  conduct  and  worship  might  readily  be 
assumed  to  cover  all  manner  of  abuses.  But 
this  was  no  excuse  for  the  treatment  to  which 
they  were  subjected.  It  shows  how  very  far 
even  the  Reformed  Churches  were  from  the 
practice  of  true  Christian  charity,  and  how 
little  understanding  they  had  of  the  funda- 
mental distinction  between  letter  and  spirit. 

It  was  their  keen  sense  of  this  distinction 
and  of  the  infinitely  greater  importance  of  the 
things  of  the  Spirit  which  led  the  Quakers  to 
abandon  the  sacraments  as  being  needless  to  a 
spiritual  Christianity.  They  claimed  to  have 
that  for  which  the  sacraments  stand,  in  so 


104  NONCONFORMITY 

real  and  effective  a  manner  that  the  outward 
form  was  but  a  useless  encumbrance.  The 
assurance  of  their  communion  with  God 
was  evidenced  to  them  by  an  inward  ex- 
perience which  no  ceremony  could  possibly 
strengthen.  They  claimed  that  Scripture 
itself  supported  them  in  this  belief  and  ap- 
pealed directly  to  the  teaching  of  Jesus  Christ. 
This  was  very  high  ground  to  take,  and  it 
represents  an  ideal  the  influence  of  which 
has  been  felt  in  all  the  Churches.  But  it 
probably  also  explains  why  the  tenets  of  the 
Friends  have  not  spread  more  rapidly  and 
have  not  been  more  popular.  The  position 
is  too  exalted  for  average  human  nature. 
Men  need  some  mediation  of  the  things  of 
the  Spirit,  and  they  find  in  the  outward  and 
visible  signs  just  what  they  need.  It  may 
be  said  also  that  the  Quakers  were  not 
altogether  consistent  in  the  statement  of  their 
position.  Carried  to  its  logical  conclusion 
it  would  lead  to  a  neglect  of  Scripture  as  well 
as  of  the  sacraments.  The  inward  light 
to  which  they  appealed  was  their  ultimate 
authority  and  was  regarded  by  them  as 
infallible,  and  yet  they  made  it  lead  up  to  an 
acceptance  of  the  traditional  view  of  the 
infallibility  of  Scripture,  and  used  this,  in 
its  turn,  as  an  evidence  for  it.  Thus  the 
Spirit  was  the  witness  to  Scripture,  and  the 
Scripture  the  witness  to  the  Spirit.  As 
Robert  Barclay  writes :  "  We  do  look  upon 
them  {i.e.  the  Scriptures)  as  the  only  fit  out- 


THE  QUAKERS  105 

ward  judge  of  controversies  among  Christians  : 
and  that  whatsoever  doctrine  is  contrary  unto 
their  testimony  may  therefore  justly  be 
regarded  as  false."  On  the  other  hand,  in 
defending  the  Boston  martyrs  against  the 
charge  of  heresy,  Isaac  Pennington  wrote:  "The 
Quakers  believe  that  Christ  is  the  eternal  life, 
light,  wisdom  and  power  of  God  which  was 
manifested  in  that  body  of  flesh  which  he 
took  of  the  Virgin,  that  he  is  the  king,  priest 
and  prophet  of  his  people  and  saveth  them 
from  their  sins  by  laying  down  his  life  for  them 
and  imputing  his  righteousness  to  them  : 
yet  not  without  revealing  and  bringing 
forth  the  same  righteousness  in  them  which 
he  wrought  for  them.  And  by  experience 
they  know  that  there  is  no  being  saved  by  a 
belief  of  his  death  for  them,  and  of  his  re- 
surrection, ascension,  intercession,  etc., without 
being  brought  into  true  fellowship  with  him 
in  his  death  and  without  feeling  his  immortal 
seed  of  life  raised  and  living  in  them.  And  so 
they  disown  the  faith  in  Christ's  death  which 
is  only  received  and  entertained  from  the 
relation  of  the  letter  of  the  Scriptures,  and 
stands  not  in  the  divine  power,  and  sensible 
experience  of  the  begotten  of  God  in  the 
heart."  These  words  exactly  describe  the 
position  of  the  earlier  Quakers,  and  though  it 
has  been  somewhat  modified  in  the  course  of 
their  history,  they  have  never  departed  from 
the  main  principle  of  an  inward  light  leading 
to  and  expressing  an  inward  life  and  experience 


106  NONCONFORMITY 

which  was  the  all-sufficient  ground  of  their 
assurance.  They  held  that  the  light  and 
life  were  for  all  men,  and  this  stirred  them 
to  an  unusual  missionary  zeal.  They  learnt 
from  it  the  true  dignity  of  human  nature, 
and  this  drove  them  to  help  the  poor  and 
degraded  and  to  set  free  the  slave. 

But  this  very  principle  was  also  the  source 
of  their  weakness.  They  were  not  always 
able  to  meet  its  lofty  claims.  Trust  in 
the  inward  light  was  sometimes  so  interpreted 
as  to  lead  to  grave  excesses  on  the  one  hand, 
and  to  a  depreciation  of  the  work  of  the 
intellect  on  the  other.  Fox  himself  was 
occasionally  betrayed  into  violence  of  action 
and  speech,  as  for  instance  when  he  de- 
nounced the  "  bloody  city  of  Lichfield,"  and 
more  than  one  of  his  followers  gave  way  at 
times  to  the  same  spirit.  But  there  was  a 
saving  common  sense  among  the  Friends 
which  led  to  a  speedy  condemnation  of  action 
of  this  kind,  and  prevented  it  from  ever 
becoming  general,  as  it  did  among  the  Ana- 
baptists. The  other  defect  was  more  serious, 
and  accounts  largely  for  the  stagnation  of  the 
Society  of  Friends  during  the  whole  of  the 
eighteenth  century.  Depreciation  of  the 
part  which  the  intellect  plays  in  religion  has 
always  been  characteristic  of  mysticism. 
The  inner  experience  of  religion  does  un- 
doubtedly result  in  a  new  illumination,  but 
that  illumination  is  not  the  whole  of  know- 
ledge.   An  interpretation  of  religion  which 


THE  QUAKERS  107 

may  seem  to  justify  men  in  putting  a  premium 
on  ignorance  can  never  hold  the  field  for 
long.  That  this  does  not  necessarily  belong 
to  the  Quaker  position  is  evidenced  by  their 
recent  history.  The  combination  of  spiritual 
insight  with  intellectual  and  social  passion 
which  they  present  in  modern  times  is  a 
remarkable  and  powerful  contribution  to  the 
religious  life  of  our  time. 

Fox  and  the  Quakers  were  pioneers  also 
in  respect  of  their  attitude  to  Church  Estab- 
lishment and  to  the  relation  of  the  Church 
with  the  civil  power.  They  carried  their 
protest  so  far  as  to  object  altogether  to  a  paid 
ministry.  That  in  asserting  the  general 
principle  of  non-interference  on  the  part 
of  the  State  they  were  not  altogether  in 
advance  of  their  time  may  be  judged  from 
Milton's  letter  to  Cromwell,  in  which  he  says  : 
"  If  you  leave  the  Church  to  the  Church  and 
discreetly  rid  yourself  and  the  magistracy  of 
that  burden,  actually  half  of  the  whole  and 
at  the  same  time  most  incompatible  with  the 
rest,  not  allowing  two  powers  of  utterly 
diverse  natures,  the  civil  and  the  ecclesiastical^ 
to  commit  fornication  together,  and  by  their 
promiscuous  and  delusive  helps  apparently 
to  strengthen  but  in  reality  to  weaken  and 
finally  subvert  each  other  :  if  also  you  take 
away  all  persecuting  power  from  the  Church — 
for  persecuting  power  will  never  be  absent, 
so  long  as  money,  the  poison  of  the  Church, 
the  strangler  of  the  truth,  shall  be  extorted 


108  NONCONFORMITY 

by  force  from  the  unwilling  as  a  pay  for 
preaching  the  gospel — then  you  will  have 
cast  out  of  the  Church  those  money  changers, 
that  truckle  not  with  doves,  but  with  the 
Dove  itself,  the  Holy  Ghost.'*  This  is  among 
the  earliest  and  clearest  statements  of  what 
afterwards  became  the  traditional  Noncon- 
formist attitude  towards  the  connection  of 
the  Church  with  the  state. 

At  an  early  period  in  his  ministry,  if  it 
may  so  be  called,  Fox  found  it  necessary  to 
gather  his  followers  into  "  meetings."  The 
first  of  these  was  at  Sedbergh  in  Yorkshire 
in  the  year  1653,  and  it  was  followed  by 
others  in  other  parts  of  the  country.  In 
some  cases  whole  congregations  of  Inde- 
pendents came  over  and  joined  these  new 
Christians  who  were  "  gathered  in  the  name 
of  Jesus."  In  1656  a  General  Meeting  was 
established  in  London  to  manage  the  affairs 
of  the  new  communities,  for  the  supply  of 
preachers  and  Bibles,  the  establishment  of 
meetings,  and  the  support  of  the  poor.  For 
the  reasons  already  mentioned  the  movement, 
though  it  began  with  great  enthusiasm,  did 
not  maintain  this  level  for  long.  The 
Quakers  have  never  attracted  the  multitude 
and  probably  never  will,  but  they  have  been 
a  most  wholesome  leaven  in  the  Free  Church 
life  of  this  country,  and  their  influence  has 
been  felt  far  beyond  their  own  borders.  Their 
testimony  to  religious  liberty,  and  to  the 
spirituality  and  simplicity  of  the  gospel,  has 


THE  QUAKERS  109 

been  more  steadily  consistent  than  that  of 
any  other  rehgious  body. 

The  story  of  George  Fox  carries  us  some 
way  beyond  the  period  in  EngUsh  history 
which  we  had  reached  in  the  last  chapter,  and 
we  must  now  retrace  our  steps.  The  military 
Republic  est  abUshed  on  the  death  of  Charles  was 
but  short-lived.  The  situation  was  eminently 
one  which  called  for  a  strong  man,  and  only 
one  man  was  possible.  Cromwell's  assump- 
tion of  power  was  not  the  result  of  a  deep- 
laid  plan  of  his  own,  but  was  one  of  those 
things  which  it  is  now  the  fashion  to  call 
inevitable.  We  are  only  concerned  here 
with  the  general  history  of  the  time  so  far 
as  it  affected  religion  and  the  Churches.  The 
battle  of  Dunbar  was  the  end  of  political 
Presbyterianism.  But  the  Independents  used 
their  triumph  mercifully.  Presbyterians  were 
allowed  their  part  in  the  settlement  of 
religion.  Some  were  to  be  found  among  the 
Triers  appointed  to  purge  the  Churches  of 
unworthy  ministers,  and  the  places  of  these 
men  were  filled  by  Presbyterians  and  Baptists 
as  well  as  by  Independents.  Episcopalians 
were  ejected  in  large  numbers,  but,  on  the 
whole,  they  were  treated  tenderly,  and  many 
of  them  were  still  allowed  to  preach.  For 
the  first  time  in  the  history  of  this  country 
religious  toleration  was  accepted  as  a  definite 
policy.  The  Council  of  State  in  1653  de- 
clared that  "  such  as  profess  faith  in  God 
by  Jesus  Christ,  though  differing  in  judgment 


110  NONCONFORMITY 

from  the  doctrine,  worship  or  discipline  pub- 
licly held  forth,  shall  not  be  restrained  from, 
but  shall  be  protected  in,  the  profession  of 
their  faith  and  exercise  of  their  religion,  so 
as  they  abuse  not  this  liberty  to  the  civil  in- 
jury of  others  and  to  the  actual  disturbance 
of  the  public  peace  on  their  part,  provided 
this  liberty  be  not  extended  to  Popery  or 
Prelacy,  or  to  such  as  under  a  profession  of 
Christianity  hold  forth  and  practise  licentious- 
ness." It  will  be  seen  that  this  was  but  a 
very  limited  form  of  toleration  after  all.  But 
the  exceptions  to  it  were  not,  as  we  have  seen, 
rigidly  enforced,  and  were  further  covered  by 
another  article  in  the  declaration  which 
provided  that  "  none  be  compelled  to  con- 
form to  the  public  religion  by  penalties  or 
otherwise."  Cromwell  himself  was  all  for 
toleration,  and  protected  even  the  Quakers. 
In  this  respect  he  was  in  advance  of  his 
contemporaries,  and  though  his  Govern- 
ment took  his  view,  there  is  no  doubt  that 
the  people  at  large  were  not  prepared  for  any 
real  measure  of  religious  liberty.  Very  few 
probably  agreed  with  Vane  that  "  the  pro- 
vince of  the  magistrate  is  this  world  and 
man's  body :  not  his  conscience  or  the 
concerns  of  eternity." 

The  religious  condition  of  England  during 
the  Commonwealth  was  one  of  extreme 
confusion.  Presbyterianism  was  still  the 
only  form  of  Church  government  legally 
recognised,  and  there  were  still  many  Pres- 


THE  QUAKERS  111 

byterians  in  Parliament.  These  were  alto- 
gether against  Cromwell's  policy  of  toleration 
and  were  continually  trying  to  force  his  hand 
in  the  direction  of  closer  definitions  of 
Christian  belief.  It  was  the  necessity  of 
conciliating  these  men,  and  at  the  same 
time  of  maintaining  his  own  exalted  con- 
ception of  religious  Uberty,  which  caused 
the  Protector  to  refrain  from  any  final 
settlement  of  religion.  His  second  Parlia- 
ment was  even  more  intolerant  than  the  first, 
and  he  had  difiiculty  in  holding  them  back 
from  persecution,  as  in  the  case  of  James 
Naylor.  Meanwhile,  in  the  country  at  large 
things  were  in  a  state  of  chaos.  Each  sect 
did  that  which  was  right  in  its  own  eyes,  and 
no  one  of  them  seemed  to  have  a  more  legal 
position  than  any  other.  The  civil  power 
kept  a  watchful  eye  on  them  all,  especially 
on  the  Episcopalians  and  Papists,  but  inter- 
fered as  Httle  as  possible.  The  question 
of  tithes  was  constantly  under  discussion 
but  never  settled,  and  nothing  effective  was 
done  in  the  way  of  providing  support  for  the 
ministry.  There  is  no  doubt  that  in  many 
parishes  things  were  in  a  most  unsatisfactory 
condition,  and  sometimes  the  people  were 
left  without  any  regular  spiritual  provision 
at  all.  Certainly  it  is  true  that  ministers 
of  scandalous  Ufe  were  summarily  dealt  with, 
and  there  was  also  a  good  deal  of  inquisition 
into  the  private  lives  of  individual  members 
of  the  Churches.     It  was  in  connection  with 


112  NONCONFORMITY 

this  that  the  more  disagreeable  side  of 
Puritanism  was  seen.  The  time  was  favour- 
able to  the  precisian  and  the  moralist,  and 
they  did  their  work  so  thoroughly  as  to 
create  disgust  and  weariness  in  many  quarters. 
But  these  men  were  the  smaller  fry  of  the 
party  and  they  did  not  always  represent 
either  the  policy  or  the  mind  of  their  leaders. 
Cromwell  himself,  as  we  have  seen,  was 
always  on  the  side  of  toleration  and  was  by 
no  means  averse  to  the  innocent  gaieties  of 
life.  In  this  he  was  warmly  supported  by 
Milton,  who  was  certainly  no  fanatic,  and  by 
his  famous  chaplain,  John  Owen.  Owen, 
who  along  with  Goodwin  and  Howe  repre- 
sented the  Independent  rule  at  Oxford,  was 
very  far  removed  from  those  extreme  Puritans 
who  regarded  all  learning  as  unspiritual  and 
could  describe  it  as  the  "  smoke  from  the 
bottomless  pit."  When  Cromwell  was  Chan- 
cellor he  entrusted  to  Owen  the  task  of 
reforming  the  University,  where  both  study 
and  manners  had  been  sadly  dissipated  by 
the  war.  Even  Clarendon,  with  all  his 
hatred  of  the  Puritan  regime,  admits  that  he 
was  successful  in  his  task,  and  that,  under 
his  rule,  the  University  reaped  a  "  harvest  of 
extraordinarily  good  and  sound  knowledge 
in  all  parts  of  learning."  Owen  tempered 
zeal  with  a  wise  toleration.  He  allowed 
some  of  the  Anglican  chaplains  to  remain 
undisturbed,  and  was  tender  to  ancient 
ceremonies  and  institutions.     Evelyn,  in  his 


THE  QUAKERS  113 

Diary,  speaks  of  chapels  which  were  permitted 
to  retain  their  "ancient  garb  notwithstand- 
ing the  scrupulositie  of  the  times."  Owen  also 
defended  the  University  against  the  hostiUty 
of  some  of  the  more  fanatical  sectaries,  and 
though  he  maintained  a  high  standard  of 
morals,  showed  himself  an  example  of  wise 
latitude  both  in  dress  and  deportment.  He 
stands  out  among  the  finest  of  the  Puritan 
theologians.  He  was  logical,  thorough  and 
definite.  But  at  the  same  time  he  had  a 
rare  spiritual  insight,  and  a  rehgious  experi- 
ence which  gives  fire  and  meaning  to  some  of 
his  driest  argumentation.  In  his  personal 
passion  for  Jesus  Christ  he  stands  apart 
from  and  above  most  of  his  contemporaries. 
Owen  was  also  largely  responsible  for  Crom- 
well's efforts  at  Church  settlement  and 
reform,  with  regard  to  which  Dr.  Gardiner 
says  :  "With  the  exception  of  the  condemna- 
tion of  the  use  of  the  Common  Prayer,  the 
scheme  was  in  the  highest  sense  good  and 
generous  :  and  it  is  well  to  remember  that 
those  who  strove  to  reserve  the  use  of  the 
Common  Prayer  were  a  political  as  well  as 
an  ecclesiastical  party,  and  that  the  weight 
and  activity  of  that  party,  except  so  far 
as  it  appealed  to  the  indifferent  in  religion, 
were  out  of  all  proportion  to  its  numbers." 


114  NONCONFORMITY 

CHAPTER  VII 

THE   RESTORATION 

The  return  of  the  Stuarts  was  due  to 
something  more  than  a  mere  Royalist  re- 
action. Cromwell's  work  had  never  been 
really  finished,  and  the  country  had  not  had 
time  to  understand  and  appreciate  either  his 
methods  or  his  ideals.  Nor  had  the  English 
people  as  a  whole  ever  accepted  the  position 
of  the  Independents.  The  majority  of  them 
were  still  either  Anglicans  or  Presbyterians, 
and  these  only  waited  for  the  opportunity 
to  assert  themselves.  After  the  death  of 
Cromwell  their  opportunity  soon  came. 
There  was  no  one  to  take  the  Protector's 
place.  The  majority  in  Parliament  was 
soon  dissipated  by  jealousies  and  divided 
counsels.  By  1 660  the  Presbyterians  were  once 
again  in  the  ascendancy  and  began  to  take 
their  part  in  the  negotiations  which  ended 
in  the  return  of  Charles.  They  had  no  great 
fear  of  restoring  the  monarchy,  for  the  re- 
publican sentiment  had  never  taken  much 
hold  save  among  the  Independents,  Baptists, 
and  minor  sects ;  but  they  were  very  anxious 
that  the  King  should  not  bring  back  Episco- 
pacy with  him.  In  order  to  prevent  such  a 
catastrophe  they  set  about  completing  the 
establishment  of  Presbyterianism.  But  it 
was   to   be   Presbyterianism   of   a   moderate 


THE  RESTORATION  115 

sort  with  some  consideration  for  tender 
consciences.  The  Westminster  Confession 
was  once  more  circulated  by  authority,  and 
the  Solemn  League  and  Covenant  was  ordered 
to  be  read  in  all  churches  once  a  year.  The 
policy  of  the  majority  as  reflected  in  the 
remains  of  the  Long  Parliament  now  sitting 
was  to  see  that,  if  the  King  was  brought 
back,  it  should  be  under  due  securities  for 
the  maintenance  of  religion  and  the  public 
cause  as  they  understood  them. 

We  cannot  here  detail  the  long  course  of 
intrigue  which  led  to  the  re -establishment 
of  the  monarchy  by  the  new  "  Convention  " 
Parliament.  Suffice  it  to  say  that  the 
Presbyterians  joined  hands  with  Royalists 
and  Anglicans  in  the  work.  They  were 
living  in  a  fool's  paradise  if  they  believed 
that  Charles  would  ever  accept  their  position, 
and  perhaps  some  of  them  were  willingly 
deceived.  What  they  could  not  and  would 
not  see,  Milton  saw  clearly  enough.  He  did 
what  he  could  to  stop  "  the  epidemic  mad- 
ness "  which  had  seized  on  many  of  his  friends, 
and  in  his  "  Ready  and  Easy  Way  to  Establish 
a  Free  Commonwealth "  he  tried  to  bring 
them  to  a  better  mind.  But  he  was  fighting 
against  influences  which  were  too  strong  for 
him.  People  were  tired  of  the  Puritan 
regime,  of  the  excessive  strictness  with 
which  it  had  been  forced,  and  of  the  disputes 
and  differences  among  those  who  enforced 
it.    Then,   on  the   other  side,   Charles   was 


116  NONCONFORMITY 

pliant  and  plausible.  He  was  ready  to 
grant  a  free  pardon  to  all  who  had  been 
against  him,  save  those  whom  Parlia- 
ment might  wish  to  punish  ;  and  he  finally 
came  back  under  the  cover  of  declarations 
which  were  well  calculated  to  satisfy  the 
most  timid,  if  only  they  could  have  been 
believed.  "  We  declare,"  he  wrote,  "  a 
liberty  to  tender  consciences,  and  that  no 
man  shall  be  disquieted  or  called  in  question 
for  differences  of  opinion  in  matters  of 
religion  which  do  not  disturb  the  peace  of 
the  Kingdom :  and  we  shall  be  ready  to 
consent  to  such  an  Act  of  Parliament  as  upon 
mature  deliberation  shall  be  offered  to  us 
for  the  full  granting  that  indulgence."  He 
declared  Parliaments  to  be  "  so  vital  a  part 
of  the  constitution  of  the  Kingdom,  and  so 
necessary  for  the  government  of  it,  that  we 
well  know  neither  prince  nor  people  can  be 
in  any  tolerable  degree  happy  without  them  : 
...  we  shall  always  be  as  tender  of  their 
privileges,  and  as  careful  to  preserve  and 
protect  them  as  of  that  which  is  most  near 
to  ourself  and  most  necessary  for  our  own 
preservation."  If  Charles  had  meant  these 
words  and  had  stood  by  them;  the  course 
of  English  history  would  have  been  very 
different.  His  failure  to  do  so  led,  among 
many  other  consequences,  to  the  rise  of 
modern  Nonconformity. 

For    the    time    being    England    believed 
Charles'  words,  and  the   Breda  Declaration 


THE  RESTORATION  117 

quoted  above  secured  his  return.  He  landed 
on  May  25,  and  proceeded  to  London  amid 
a  whirl  of  popular  excitement  and  rejoicing. 
Receiving  the  gift  of  a  Bible  from  the  Mayor 
of  Dover  the  King  declared  that  "  it  was 
the  thing  he  loved  above  all  things  in  the 
world."  At  all  the  early  ceremonials  and 
receptions  Presbyterian  ministers  were  to 
the  fore,  and  bishops  were  kept  studiously 
in  the  background.  Several  Presbyterians 
were  appointed  Court  chaplains,  and  when 
they  addressed  Charles  and  told  him  of  their 
desire  to  tolerate  Episcopacy,  he  spoke  them 
fair  and  promised  his  co-operation  in  secur- 
ing a  religious  settlement.  It  soon  became 
manifest,  however,  that  all  this  was  mere 
policy.  The  court  chaplains  were  simply 
for  show.  Only  four  of  them  ever  preached, 
and  none  of  them  for  a  second  time,  and, 
as  Baxter  somewhat  ruefully  remarks,  none 
of  them  ever  received  a  penny  of  salary. 

Meanwhile,  however,  the  Presbyterians 
took  it  all  seriously  enough  and  went  on  with 
their  schemes  of  reconciliation.  Though  they 
came  to  nothing;  they  are  very  interesting  as 
showing  what  the  two  positions  stood  for  at 
the  period.  They  asked  for  measures  to 
secure  godly  and  learned  men  as  ministers, 
and  for  some  assiu^ance  that  no  persons 
should  be  admitted  to  the  Sacrament  of  the 
Lord's  Supper  unless  they  had  understanding 
of  what  they  did,  and  had  made  profession 
of  Christian  faith  and  obedience.     Also  they 


118  NONCONFORMITY 

asked  for  the  better  sanctification  of  the 
Lord's  Day.  As  to  Church  government, 
they  are  quite  wilHng  to  accept  a  modified 
Episcopacy  and  a  revised  Prayer  Book,  so 
long  as  this  latter  is  not  made  compulsory 
upon  all,  and  allows  the  minister  to  offer 
free  prayer  sometimes.  They  are  not  sure 
of  the  advantages  of  Ceremonial,  and  they 
would  at  least  like  to  avoid  kneeling  at  the 
Lord's  Supper,  bowing  at  the  name  of  Jesus 
and  towards  the  altar,  the  keeping  of  holy 
days,  the  wearing  of  the  surplice,  and  the 
making  of  the  sign  of  the  cross  in  baptism. 
But  the  bishops  were  not  in  the  least  dis- 
posed to  make  concessions  on  points  like 
these.  They  refused  a  conference,  and 
returned  an  evasive  reply  to  the  representa- 
tions of  the  Presbyterians.  They  knew  that 
they  had  only  to  bide  their  time.  The  King, 
however,  recognised  that  it  was  still  needful 
to  walk  warily,  and  as  he  was  anxious  to 
secure  some  form  of  religious  settlement 
which  might  yet  be  made  to  include  Roman 
Catholics,  he  made  proposals  for  a  Declaration 
of  Indulgence.  A  memorable  conference 
was  held  at  the  house  of  Lord  Clarendon,  at 
which  six  bishops  and  the  leading  Presby- 
terians were  present.  In  the  course  of  the 
debate,  it  appeared  that  the  King  wished 
to  include  Independents  and  Anabaptists  in 
the  Indulgence,  and  any  others  whose 
worship  would  not  disturb  the  peace.  It 
Was  at  once  perceived  that  this  would  mean 


THE  RESTORATION  119 

the  toleration  of  Roman  Catholics  ;  and  the 
temper  of  the  meeting  showed  quite  plainly 
that  such  a  suggestion  would  not  be  received 
with  favour.  A  few  days  later,  on  October  25, 
the  Declaration  was  issued  in  such  form  as 
merely  to  comprehend  Presbyterians  who 
were  in  favour  of  a  moderate  Episcopacy. 
It  accepted  the  terms  which  the  Presbyterians 
had  originally  offered,  and  added  a  Commission 
for  the  revision  of  the  Liturgy.  To  show 
his  sincerity  the  King  offered  Baxter  a 
bishopric,  and  other  Presbyterian  ministers 
were  offered  deaneries,  while  Reynolds 
actually  accepted  the  see  of  Norwich.  All 
this,  however,  v/as  premature.  The  "  Con- 
vention "  Parliament,  though  mainly  Presby- 
terian in  its  leanings,  refused  to  give  the 
Declaration  the  force  of  law,  and,  in  doing 
so,  there  is  evidence  that  it  had  the  goodwill 
of  the  King.  There  is  no  doubt,  indeed, 
that  he  was  anxious  to  conciliate  the  Puritan 
party,  but  he  was  more  anxious  to  make 
things  easy  for  the  Roman  Catholics.  Prob- 
ably, also,  he  was  not  unmindful  of  the  fact 
that  when  Parliament  rejected  a  measure 
which  he  had  himself  seemed  willing  to 
grant,  their  action  would  win  a  certain 
popularity  for  him  by  contrast. 

Parliament,  however,  was  preparing  to  go  a 
great  deal  further  and  to  throw  off  the  mask 
of  tolerance  once  for  all.  The  "  Convention  " 
Parliament  had  already  restored  to  their 
benefices  all  the  clergy  ejected  during  the 


120  NONCONFORMITY 

Civil  War,  including  those  who  had  been 
dismissed  for  incompetency  or  scandalous 
living.  This  was  the  last  Act  of  Charles' 
first  Parliament.  The  Cavalier  Parliament 
was  far  more  Royalist  in  temper,  and  by  it 
Clarendon  was  able  to  carry  out  his  full  anti- 
Puritan  policy.  It  had  been  excited,  too,  by 
an  outbreak  of  Fifth  Monarchy  men  under 
Venner,  for  whose  extravagances  all  the 
non-Episcopalians  were  made  to  suffer,  how- 
ever sincerely  they  repudiated  them.  Parlia- 
ment met  in  May  1661,  and  the  majority  lost 
no  time  in  restoring  all  its  old  privileges 
to  the  Anglican  Church.  They  repealed  the 
Act  of  Charles  I,  which  excluded  the  Bishops 
from  the  House  of  Lords.  They  passed  the 
Corporations  Act,  which  excluded  Noncon- 
formists from  all  municipal  offices,  and  as  the 
members  of  Parliament  for  some  boroughs 
were  elected  by  the  Corporations,  thus  put  the 
election  in  those  cases  solely  in  the  hands  of 
members  of  the  Church  of  England.  They 
restored  the  ecclesiastical  courts,  and  finally, 
in  May  1662,  they  passed  "An  Act  for  the 
Uniformity  of  public  prayers  and  Adminis- 
tration of  Sacraments  and  other  Rites  and 
Ceremonies  :  and  for  establishing  the  form  of 
Making,  Ordaining,  and  Consecrating  Bishops, 
Priests,  and  Deacons  in  the  Church  of  England. ' ' 
The  Act  begins  with  a  reference  to  the  efforts 
after  Uniformity  made  in  Elizabeth's  reign, 
and  then  goes  on  to  give  the  following  interest- 
ing  description    of    Nonconformists :    "  And 


THE  RESTORATION  121 

yet  this  notwithstanding,  a  great  number  of 
people  in  divers  parts  of  this  realm  following 
their  own  Sensuality,  and  living  without 
knowledge  and  due  fear  of  God,  do  wilfully 
and  schismatically  abstain  and  refuse  to 
come  to  their  Parish  Churches  and  other 
public  places  where  Common  Prayer,  ad- 
ministration of  the  Sacraments,  and  Preaching 
of  the  Word  of  God  is  used  upon  the  Sundays 
and  other  days  ordained  and  appointed 
to  be  kept  and  observed  as  Holy  days."  As 
Dr.  Dale  observes,  this  definition  of  Noncon- 
formity still  remains  unchanged  on  the  Statute 
book  of  England. 

The  Act  was  drawn  with  the  utmost  rigour. 
It  provided  that  on  or  before  the  Feast  of 
St.  Bartholomew  (August  24)  every  parson, 
vicar,  or  other  minister  whatsoever  should 
make  the  following  declaration  in  presence 
of  his  congregation :  "  I  do  here  declare 
my  unfeigned  Assent  and  Consent  to  all  and 
everything  contained  and  prescribed  in  and 
by  the  book  entitled  The  book  of  Common 
Prayer."  Further,  all  holders  of  ecclesiastical 
positions  and  all  Professors  and  tutors  in 
Universities  were  required  to  subscribe  a 
declaration  that  they  would  not  take  arms 
against  the  King  or  any  one  commissioned 
by  him,  that  they  would  conform  to  the 
Liturgy  of  the  Church  of  England,  and  that 
they  regarded  the  Solemn  League  and  Cove- 
nant as  an  unlawful  oath.  Failure  to  comply 
with  the  Act  meant  in  every  case  deprivation. 


122  NONCONFORMITY 

No  minister  who  was  not  episcopally  ordained 
could  be  presented  to  any  living,  and  any 
minister  not  so  ordained  administering  the 
Lord's  Supper  in  a  private  house  or  conventicle 
was  liable  to  a  fine  of  one  hundred  pounds. 
It  was  the  passing  of  this  Act  that  made  Non- 
conformity in  this  country  and  that  set  up 
the  religious  cleavage  in  English  society  that 
remains  until  this  day.  It  pressed  as  hardly 
on  Presbyterians  as  on  Independents  and 
Baptists.  It  drove  out  of  the  Church  of 
England  some  two  thousand  clergy,  among 
whom  were  many  of  the  best  and  wisest  in 
the  land,  such  as  Baxter  and  Calamy,  Bates, 
Owen  and  Howe.  By  their  ejectment  the 
Church  was  spiritually  impoverished,  and  her 
position  was  finally  determined  in  the  sacer- 
dotal and  sacramental  direction.  As  J.  R. 
Green  says:  "The  Church  of  England  stood 
from  that  moment  isolated  and  alone  among  all 
the  Churches  of  the  Christian  world.  The 
Reformation  had  severed  it  irretrievably  from 
those  which  still  clung  to  the  obedience  of  the 
Papacy.  By  its  rejection  of  all  but  Episcopal 
orders  the  Act  of  Uniformity  severed  it  as 
irretrievably  from  the  general  body  of  the 
Protestant  Churches,  whether  Lutheran  or 
Reformed.  And  while  thus  cut  off  from  all 
healthy  religious  communion  with  the  world 
without,  it  sank  into  immobility  within.  With 
the  expulsion  of  the  Puritan  clergy  all  change; 
all  efforts  after  reform,  all  national  develop- 
ment, suddenly  stopped.     From  that  time  to 


THE  RESTORATION  123 

this  the  Episcopal  Church  has  been  unable  to 
meet  the  varying  spiritual  needs  of  its  ad- 
herents by  any  modification  of  its  government 
or  of  its  worship.  It  stands  alone  among  all 
the  religious  bodies  of  Western  Christendom 
in  its  failure  through  two  hundred  years  to 
devise  a  single  new  service  of  prayer  or  of 
praise." 

On  the  other  hand,  the  expulsion  of  the 
Puritans  proved  a  great  step  in  the  direction 
of  religious  liberty.  It  drove  the  Presbyterians 
into  the  ranks  of  Nonconformity  and  created 
a  great  and  influential  body  of  men  who  were 
pledged  to  the  ideal  of  seeking  a  free  Church  in 
a  free  State.  It  also  preserved  the  evangelical 
spirit  to  a  degree  that  would  have  been 
impossible  in  a  State  Church,  and  it  kept 
alive  the  fire  of  a  true  religious  zeal  during 
the  dead  and  difficult  times  that  were  to  follow. 

It  is  sometimes  said  that  the  Puritans  had 
no  reason  to  complain,  because  they  wxre  only 
treated  as  they  had  themselves  treated 
Anglicans  in  the  days  of  Cromwell.  But 
there  was  a  difference.  The  ejection  during 
the  Civil  War  was  largely  a  political  measure. 
The  clergy  who  were  deprived  then  were 
deprived  as  "  malignant s,"  and  in  some 
cases  as  incompetent  or  vicious.  And,  even 
then,  they  were  allowed  by  the  law  a  fifth 
part  of  the  value  of  their  benefices  for  main- 
tenance. The  Act  of  Uniformity,  on  the 
other  hand,  was  a  measure  of  religious  perse- 
cution.    It  was  carried  out  in  direct  violation 


124  NONCONFORMITY 

of  the  honourable  understanding  into  which 
the  King  had  entered  on  his  Restoration,  and 
it  was  enforced  with  cruel  severity.  Though 
it  was  proposed  in  Parliament  that  the  ejected 
clergy  should  be  allowed  to  retain  the  fifth 
part  of  their  benefices,  the  proposal  was 
rejected  by  the  Commons,  and  they  were 
turned  out  into  the  world  to  starve.  Many 
of  them  suffered  cruelly,  though  some  were 
well  cared  for  in  the  homes  of  wealthy  Puritan 
families  or  by  the  generosity  of  their  con- 
gregations. During  the  next  twenty-five 
years — save,  as  we  shall  see,  for  short  periods 
of  indulgence — all  forms  of  Nonconformity 
were  illegal  and  under  the  ban.  But  in  spite 
of  this,  preaching  and  worship  went  on  all 
over  the  country.  In  some  places  the 
magistrates  were  not  willing  to  put  the  law 
into  operation.  In  others  the  vigilance  of 
the  authorities  was  more  or  less  easily 
evaded.  It  soon  became  manifest  that 
coercion  only  served  to  increase  the  faith 
and  zeal  of  the  Nonconformists,  and  the 
Government  was  seriously  disturbed  by  the 
evidence  given  of  their  numerical  strength 
by  the  founding  of  meetings  and  churches  all 
over  the  country.  It  was  in  the  fear  which 
these  facts  inspired  that  there  began  a  long 
and  miserable  period  of  persecution. 

At  the  same  time  the  King  still  showed 
himself  anxious  to  use  the  Nonconformists 
as  an  excuse  for  obtaining  some  larger 
measure  of  religious  liberty,  such  as  he  might 


THE  RESTORATION  125 

use  in  order  to  secure  terms  for  the  Papists. 
Though  he  disavowed  any  such  intention, 
it  is  now  clear  that  it  was  only  with  this 
end  in  view  that,  soon  after  the  passing 
of  the  Act  of  Uniformity,  he  issued  a  declara- 
tion to  the  effect  that  though  he  was  zealous 
to  maintain  uniformity,  he  intended  to 
apply  to  ParUament  for  an  Act  enabhng 
him  to  exercise  his  dispensing  power  on 
behalf  of  tender  consciences.  But  neither 
Parliament  nor  Church  were  disposed  for 
any  measures  of  relaxation.  This  was  no 
doubt  partly  due  to  the  fear  of  Popery, 
which  from  this  time  forward  became  a 
constant  and  very  potent  factor  in  English 
politics.  But  it  was  also  due  to  the  pas- 
sionate desire  of  Churchmen  to  retain  the 
ascendancy  which  they  had  won,  and  to  the 
dread  and  hatred  with  which  Puritanism 
was  regarded  by  the  court  party.  The 
pages  of  Pepys'  Diary  make  it  very  clear 
that  the  moral  licence  of  the  Restoration 
was  only  too  often  condoned  by  the  obse- 
quious preachers  of  the  State  Church,  and 
this  was  in  marked  contrast  to  the  habitual 
and  recognised  attitude  of  the  Puritans. 

In  1664  the  Conventicle  Act  was  passed. 
It  provided  that  any  person  over  sixteen 
years  of  age  who  attended  a  Nonconformist 
service,  at  which  more  than  five  persons 
were  present,  should  be  liable  to  a  fine  of 
five  pounds  or  three  months'  imprisonment 
for  the  first  offence.     For  the  second  offence 


126  NONCONFORMITY 

the    penalty    was    doubled.     For    the    third 
offence  the  fine  was  to  be  one  hundred  pounds, 
or,  in  default,  transportation  to  one  of  His 
Majesty's    foreign   plantations    for    a   period 
of    seven    years.     The    vindictive    character 
of  the  measure  is  shown  by  the  fact  that 
Virginia  and  New   England  were  especially 
exempted   from   the   list   of   foreign   planta- 
tions contemplated,  because  in  them  banished 
Nonconformists    might    easily    have    found 
friends,    and   further   by   the   fact   that   the 
cost   of   transportation   was   to    be    met   by 
distraint  on  the  goods  of  the  criminal.     In 
the  following   year  the   Five   Mile   Act  was 
passed.     It    provided    that    all    persons    in 
holy  orders,  or   "  pretending   to   be   in  holy 
orders,"    who    had    not    submitted    to    the 
provisions  of  the  Act  of  Uniformity  should 
swear   that   they   would   not   take   up   arms 
against  the  King,  or  attempt  any  alteration 
in  the  government  either  of  Church  or  State. 
FaiUng  this  they  were  not  allowed  to  come, 
except    on  a   journey;   within  five   miles   of 
any    city,    town,   or   borough,  or  any   place 
where    they    had    held    cures    or    conducted 
services.     The  penalty  for  disobedience  was 
forty  pounds.     The   effect   of  this   Act   was 
not  only  to  prevent  Nonconformist  ministers 
from    influencing    others,    even    by    private 
social    intercourse,    it     deprived    them    also 
of  almost  all  means  of  livelihood,  especially 
by  keeping  schools  and  academies.     By  this 
time   the   cup   of   their  bitterness   was   full. 


THE  RESTORATION  127 

As  Baxter  says :  "  Many  of  the  ministers 
being  afraid  to  lay  down  their  ministry 
after  they  had  been  ordained  to  ib,  preached 
to  such  as  would  hear  them  in  fields  and 
private  houses,  till  they  were  apprehended 
and  cast  into  jail,  where  many  of  them 
perished."  During  the  plague  and  after 
the  great  fire,  when  Parliament  was  meeting 
at  Oxford  and  passing  measures  against 
them,  many  of  the  Nonconformist  ministers 
returned  to  London  and  took  the  place  of 
State  ministers  who  had  fled  from  the  post 
of  duty,  in  succouring  the  sick  and  homeless 
people.  It  was  at  this  time  that  Baxter 
was  imprisoned,  and  that  Bunyan  spent 
twelve  years  in  Bedford  Jail.  Milton,  now 
old  and  blind,  had  influence  enough  to 
escape  the  storm,  and  Paradise  Lost  and 
Samson  Agonistes  remain  as  monuments  of 
his  mental  suffering  and  disappointment. 
While  the  Pilgrim''s  Progress  has  given  im- 
mortality to  the  spiritual  side  of  Puritanism, 
there  remain  also  other  books  of  the  period, 
which  witness  to  its  religious  fervour  and 
reality,  and  to  the  hold  it  had  over  the 
minds  of  the  people.  Such  are  Joseph 
Alleine's  Call  to  the  Unconverted,  Baxter's 
Saints^  Everlasting  Rest  and  Now  or  Never, 
John  Howe's  The  Living  Tem.ple,  and 
Bunyan's  Grace  Abounding  to  the  Chief  of 
Sinners.  It  is  often  said  that  the  Puritans 
had  no  definite  or  formulated  theology,  but 
they  had  what  was  perhaps  better,  a  religious 


128  NONCONFORMITY 

insight  and  experience  which  found  vivid 
expression  for  itself  under  very  varied,  if 
sometimes  very  uncouth,  forms.  So  far  from 
hindering  this  expression,  suffering  and  per- 
secution but  gave  to  it  edge  and  point. 

With  the  fall  of  Clarendon  in  1667,  further 
efforts  were  made  to  comprehend  the  Presby- 
terians in  the  Estabhshed  Church  by  relaxing 
the  terms  of  conformity,  but  nothing  came 
of  them.  In  the  following  year  the  first 
Conventicle  Act  expired,  and,  for  a  time, 
the  Nonconformists  breathed  more  freely. 
They  used  their  brief  respite  to  good  purpose, 
and  their  activity  caused  no  little  alarm  to 
the  Church  party.  In  consequence  of  it, 
Sheldon,  the  Archbishop  of  Canterbury, 
persuaded  the  King  to  issue  a  proclamation 
enforcing  the  various  Acts  against  Noncon- 
formity. Parliament  thanked  the  King  for 
his  proclamation,  and  proceeded  to  pass  the 
second  Conventicle  Act  (1670),  which,  though 
less  severe  in  its  penalties,  was  framed  so  as 
to  be  much  more  effective  than  the  first.  It 
contained  a  remarkable  clause,  providing 
that  "  if  any  doubt  should  arise  concerning 
the  meaning  of  any  part  of  this  Act,  it  was 
to  be  determined  in  the  sense  that  was  the 
most  contrary  to  Conventicles,  it  being 
the  intention  of  the  House  to  repress  them 
in  the  most  effectual  manner  possible." 
For  the  moment,  however,  this  intention 
was  frustrated.  Charles  was  occupied  with 
the  Dutch  War,  and  had  become  a  pensioner 


THE  RESTORATION  129 

of  the  King  of  France.  His  foreign  policy- 
was  highly  unpopular,  and  he  felt  that  he 
could  not  afford  to  alienate  any  large  section 
of  his  people.  He  resolved,  therefore,  to 
suspend  the  penal  laws  against  the  Non- 
conformists, and  in  1671-72  issued  his 
Declaration  of  Indulgence.  The  effect  of 
this  was  that  a  certain  number  of  places  and 
persons  might  be  licensed  for  the  carrying 
on  of  worship  in  other  than  the  Anglican 
way.  Even  Roman  Catholics  were  exempted 
from  penalties,  though  licences  for  places 
of  worship  were  not  granted  to  them.  Some 
of  the  Presbyterians  scrupled  to  accept  this 
favour,  believing  that  they  had  by  right  a 
place  in  the  National  Church.  Others  of  them 
had  no  hesitation  in  applying  for  licences, 
and  in  this  they  were  joined  by  large  numbers 
of  Independents,  or  Congregationalists, — 
as  they  now  began  to  be  called, — Baptists, 
and  Quakers.  Within  the  first  ten  months 
of  the  Indulgence  some  two  thousand  five 
hundred  licences  were  granted.  Full  infor- 
mation in  regard  to  them  has  recently  been 
supplied  by  the  industry  of  the  Rev.  G.  Lyon 
Turner  in  his  Original  Records  of  Early 
Nonconformity  under  Persecution  and  In- 
dulgence. The  records  consist  of  the 
Episcopal  returns  for  the  years  1665,  1669, 
and  1676,  showing  the  number  of  conventicles 
in  the  various  dioceses,  the  numbers  of  their 
adherents,  and  the  names  of  their  leaders, 
and  also  of  a  large  number  of  documents 


130  NONCONFORMITY 

connected  with  the  issue  of  Hcences  under 
the  Declaration  of  Indulgences  in  1672. 
These  most  interesting  volumes  throw  a  flood 
of  light  on  the  condition  of  Nonconformity 
in  England  at  the  period  indicated.  The 
sects  mentioned  are  Presbyterians,  Inde- 
pendents, Anabaptists  or  Catabaptists 
or  Antipaedobaptists,  and  Quakers.  The 
numbers  given  are  surprisingly  large,  and 
entries  like  "  numerous  "  or  "  very  numer- 
ous "  are  more  common,  where  no  figures 
are  given,  than  "  small  "  or  "  very  small." 
The  meetings  are  mostly  held  in  private 
houses  or  rooms,  and  the  status  of  the  congre- 
gations is  variously  described  as  "  mean," 
"  mostly  women,"  "  excommunicate  persons," 
"  vulgar,"  "  the  middle  sort,"  "  farmers  and 
tradesmen,"  "  of  good  estates  and  quality," 
and  "  all  sorts."  From  these  returns,  and 
from  those  of  the  applications  for  licences, 
we  may  conclude  that  in  most  parishes 
were  to  be  found  a  number  of  Nonconformists 
fairly  representative  of  the  general  popula- 
tion, and  often  led  by  men  of  ability  and 
force,  many  of  these  being  ejected  clergy. 
For  example,  in  the  Diocese  of  Exeter, 
we  have  the  following  report :  "  Mr.  Robert 
Collins,  some  tymes  Rector  of  Tallaton, 
and  eiected  for  inconformity,  lives  now  in 
Ottery  St.  Mary  in  his  owne  house  neare  the 
Church,  where  he  keeps  conventicles  fre- 
quently but  especially  upon  Sundayes  in 
tyme  of  divine  Service  to  the  Scandall  of 


THE  RESTORATION  131 

many  :  but  for  want  of  a  Justice  of  Peace, 
the  Churchwardens  or  Constables  dare  not 
enter  the  house  to  take  them,  and  their 
privacy  is  such  that  they  cannot  yet  prove 
enough  ag^'  them  to  convict  them  by 
Lawe  :  I  am  told  he  was  never  at  Church 
in  ye  time  of  Common  prayer  since  the  act 
of  Conformity  and  is  a  very  pertinacious 
Nonconformist. ' ' 

The  following  letter  is  a  typical  application 
for  a  licence  addressed  to  the  commissioner 
for  licences,  Sir  Joseph  Williamson  : — 

"  Worthy  Sir, — I  formerly  have  been  a 
preacher  of  the  Word  but  afterwards  my 
ministry  was  laid  aside  partly  by  reason  of 
some  sicknesse  that  then  lay  upon  me  and 
ptly  by  reason  of  some  things  in  use  wh  I 
cold  not  with  peace  of  conscience  unto. 
As  for  my  judgement  it  is  only  Scripturall 
and  I  doe  accord  with  Ministers  either 
episcopall  presbiteriall  or  independant  so 
farre  as  Scripture  and  Scriptm-all  sense  goeth 
and  as  the  lord  hath  enlightened  my  under- 
standing. I  have  not  preached  either  in 
publicke  or  in  private  since  the  nonconforming 
ministers  were  laid  aside  yet  have  heard 
altogether  in  publicke  :  I  haveing  read  his 
Majesties  gracious  declaration  humbly  crave 
that  according  to  it  I  may  be  alowed  to  preach 
the  gospel  of  Christ  in  the  pish  (parish)  of 
Thaxted  in  the  County  of  Essex  in  a  certaine 
place  or  house  open  and  free  for  all  commers 

E  2 


132  NONCONFORMITY 

where  I  shall  endeavour  to  my  utmost  power 
to  dispence  ye  word  of  grace  faithfully  to  the 
peoples  soules  without  medling  with  anye  State 
affaires  and  shall  be  thankful  to  his  Majesty 
and  to  those  that  shall  alow  me  to  be  im- 
ployed  in  so  good  a  worke.     So  subscribes 

"Henry  Coleman,  M'^  of  Arts  of  the  Uni- 
versitye  of  Cambridge,  and  an  ancient  preacher 
of  the  gospell  of  Christ.  Dwelling  in  the  pish  of 
Much  Eiston  in  the  County  of  Essex,  May  14th 
in  the  yeare  of  or  Lord  1672." 

The  Indulgence,  however,  was  but  short- 
lived. Parliament  counted  it  no  part  of  the 
King's  Prerogative  to  make  such  a  declara- 
tion, and  resolved  "  That  Penal  statutes,  in 
matters  ecclesiastical,  cannot  be  suspended 
but  by  Act  of  Parliament."  Even  some 
Presbyterians,  to  their  great  honour,  were 
against  the  King  in  this  matter,  and  as  one 
of  their  spokesmen  said,  "  They  had  rather 
still  go  without  their  desired  liberty  than 
have  it  in  a  way  that  would  prove  so  detri- 
mental to  the  nation."  Charles  fought  hard 
for  his  prerogative,  but  when  the  Commons 
held  up  a  money  bill  he  was  compelled  to  yield, 
and  the  licences  were  called  in. 

During  the  remaining  years  of  the  reign 
of  Charles  various  other  schemes  were  set  on 
foot  for  comprehending  Nonconformists  within 
the  Church,  but  without  any  success.  The 
discovery  of  the  supposed  Popish  plot  under 
Titus  Gates  in  1678  greatly  embittered  feel- 


THE  RESTORATION  133 

ing  and  made  the  Commons  more  jealous 
of  doing  anything  to  further  the  poHcy  of 
the  King.  An  Act  to  exclude  the  Duke  of 
York,  as  a  Roman  Catholic,  from  the  suc- 
cession was  only  defeated  by  the  House  of 
Lords  and  with  the  help  of  the  Bishops. 
The  Nonconformists  were  in  an  evil  case  and 
became  the  ready  prey  of  any  one  who  cared 
to  put  the  law  in  force  against  them.  The 
prisons  were  full  of  them,  and  the  Quakers 
especially  suffered.  It  was  at  this  time  that 
William  Penn  founded  the  colony  of  Penn- 
sylvania for  his  distressed  co-religionists. 
Dark  and  evil  as  the  reign  of  Charles  II  was, 
however,  it  showed  a  real  advance  in  the 
direction  of  civil  and  religious  Hberty.  The 
two  historic  parties.  Whig  and  Tory,  began 
then  to  be  distinguished,  and  the  former  was 
identified  with  the  policy  of  freedom  and 
toleration.  The  Nonconformists  did  not  suffer 
in  vain.  Though  most  of  them  had  no  wish 
to  meddle  in  State  affairs,  but  simply  to 
preach  the  gospel  without  let  or  hindrance, 
their  protest  had  poUtical  consequences  which 
neither  they  nor  the  country  could  avoid. 


134  NONCONFORMITY 

CHAPTER    VIII 

THE   REVOLUTION 

It  is  reported  that  Charles  II  once  said  to 
his  brother,  James,   Duke  of  York,   "  They 
will  never  get  rid  of  me  in  order  to  make  you 
King  "  ;    and  probably  no  EngHsh  king  ever 
came  to  the  throne  with  less  goodwill  among 
his   subjects   than   James   II.     Charles    had 
died  a  Roman  Catholic,  and  James  was  deter- 
mined to  hve  as  one.     Though  the  Commons 
accepted  his  promise  to  maintain  the  Govern- 
ment, both  in  Church  and  State,  as  by  law 
established,  and  regarded  him  as  more  reliable 
than    his    brother,    there    were    grave    mis- 
givings in  the  country  which  were  soon  to 
be  justified.     No  doubt  the  opportunity  for 
Catholic  reaction  was  less  than  it  had  been. 
The    closing    years    of    Charles'    reign    had 
brought  forth  the  Habeas  Corpus  Act,  which 
for  ever  put  an  end  to  arbitrary  imprison- 
ments in  this  country.     Something  Uke  free- 
dom of  the  Press  was  now  established,  and 
this  has  always  acted  as  a  curb  on  tyranny. 
James,    however,    made    the    best    of    such 
opportunities    as    he    had.     The    Protestant 
rebellions  under  Argyll  in  Scotland  and  under 
Monmouth  in  the  South  played  into  his  hands. 
They  were  made  a  reason  for  enforcing  the 
penal  laws   against  Nonconformists.     James 
was  cruel  by  nature,  and  in  Judge  Jeffreys  he 


THE  REVOLUTION  135 

found  a  fit  instrument  for  his  work.  His 
Bloody  Assize  in  the  West  Country  has  left 
a  bitter  memory  behind  it.  One  hundred 
and  fifty  rebels  were  hanged,  seven  hundred 
were  sold  into  slavery,  and  many  more  vrere 
whipped  and  imprisoned.  Even  women 
were  among  those  put  to  death,  and  their 
trial  was  in  many  cases  but  a  travesty  of 
justice.  The  quality  of  Jeffreys  is  illustrated 
by  the  fact  that  he  meted  out  much  the 
same  treatment  to  Titus  Oates  and  to  Richard 
Baxter.  Baxter's  trial  has  often  been  de- 
scribed, and  was  typical  of  what  went  on 
in  Jeffreys'  court.  "  This  is  an  old  rogue, 
a  schismatical  knave,  a  hypocritical  villain," 
shouted  the  judge.  "  He  hates  the  Liturgy  : 
he  would  have  nothing  but  long-winded  cant 
without  the  book."  The  judge  was  all  the 
while  more  abusive  than  any  prosecuting 
counsel,  and  an  obsequious  jury  found  the 
prisoner  guilty  after  the  briefest  consultation. 
Baxter  was  fined  and  imprisoned,  and  Jeffreys 
was  with  difficulty  prevented  from  having 
him  whipped  at  the  cart's  tail.  All  this 
created  an  immense  revulsion  of  feeling  in 
the  country.  It  was  known  that  Jeffreys  had 
his  orders  direct  from  the  King  and  that  the 
latter  was  resolved  on  a  policy  of  stern  re- 
pression. But  the  wiser  among  his  counsel- 
lors knew  by  this  time  that  Nonconformity 
was  not  to  be  repressed  by  persecution, 
and  James  himself  learnt  the  lesson  when  it 
was  too  late. 


136  NONCONFORMITY 

Scotland,  meanwhile,  was  suffering  even 
more  than  the  South.  The  Covenanters 
were  not  Nonconformists  in  the  sense 
that  the  English  were.  They  represented 
a  State  Church  and  believed  in  it,  but 
they  believed  also  in  religious  liberty,  and 
they  fought  and  died  for  liberty  to  worship 
God  in  their  own  fashion,  in  a  way  that 
has  won  them  an  everlasting  name.  Under 
Graham  of  Claverhouse  they  were  subjected 
to  the  crudest  treatment.  They  were 
harried  by  his  dragoons  like  wild  beasts, 
and  compelled  to  take  refuge  in  the 
hills,  and  carry  on  their  worship  in  dens 
and  caves  of  the  earth.  Men,  women  and 
children  alike  were  tortured  and  put  to 
death,  and  again  it  was  all  carried  on  at  the 
express  orders  of  the  King. 

There  can  be  little  doubt  that  while  indi- 
viduals suffered  grievously  under  this  perse- 
cution, the  general  cause  of  Protestantism, 
and  especially  of  Nonconformity,  stood  to 
gain.  The  constancy  of  the  sufferers  made 
its  impression,  and  we  read  of  ministers  who 
left  the  Establishment  because  it  was  a  perse- 
cuting Church,  and  of  soldiers  who  threw  up 
their  commissions  to  join  the  ranks  of  the 
Nonconformists.  Though  the  land  was  full 
of  informers,  and  the  conventicles  were  re- 
garded as  retreats  of  criminals,  worship  was 
carried  on,  and  the  cause  prospered.  Fear 
of  Romanism  had  something  to  do  with 
it,  and  the  outbreak  of  persecution  against 


THE  REVOLUTION  137 

the  Huguenots  in  France  showed  England 
that  there  was  still  worse  in  store  for  her 
under  a  Roman  regime.  At  the  same 
time  the  thousands  of  French  refugees 
who  came  over  to  this  country  swelled  the 
ranks  and  stiffened  the  resolution  of  the 
English  Protestants. 

But  James  soon  showed  his  hand  in  other 
ways  than  by  urging  persecution.  In  spite 
of  the  Test  Act  and  in  defiance  of  Parlia- 
ment, he  had  Roman  Catholics  appointed 
to  all  the  high  offices  of  State.  He  estab- 
lished them  in  the  Universities  by  force  and 
in  the  teeth  of  public  opinion.  In  order 
the  more  effectually  to  deal  with  refractory 
Churchmen  he  set  up  again  the  Court  of 
High  Commission,  and  that  he  might  over- 
awe the  people  he  greatly  increased  the 
standing  army.  But  even  Churchmen  and 
Tories  were  made  of  sterner  stuff  than  he 
had  thought.  Though  Royalist  to  the  core, 
they  would  not  brook  tyranny,  and  they 
were  in  no  mood  to  risk  the  ascendancy  of 
Protestantism.  The  Churches  rang  with  de- 
nunciations of  Rome,  and  pamphlets  and 
books  on  Protestantism  poured  from  the 
Press.  James  could  not  but  see  that  he 
had  undertaken  more  than  he  could  carry 
out,  and,  for  a  time  at  least,  he  turned  from 
the  policy  of  repression  and  violence  to  one 
of  indulgence.  His  first  act  of  indulgence 
was  to  liberate  some  fifteen  hundred  Quakers 
from    prison.     This    enabled    him    to    grant 


138  NONCONFORMITY 

a  similar  boon  to  some  hundreds  of  Roman 
Catholics,  but  it  had  other  reasons.  The 
Quakers  were  very  numerous,  and  they  were 
also  a  peaceable  folk  who  were  free  of  all 
complicity  in  the  actions  of  the  Common- 
wealth against  the  Stuarts.  They  were, 
therefore,  considered  safe  subjects  for  in- 
dulgence, and  would  be  likely  to  gain  the 
King  some  sort  of  popularity.  Then,  again, 
William  Penn  had  returned  from  America 
and  had  considerable  influence  at  Court. 
This  has  not  been  counted  to  him  for  right- 
eousness, but  that  he  should  use  his  influence 
to  obtain  help  for  his  own  people  is  at  least 
to  his  credit.  But  the  indulgence  was  not 
to  stop  here.  Two  j^ears  later,  in  1687,  the 
King  issued  a  Declaration  of  Indulgence  in 
which  he  pledged  himself  to  protect  and 
maintain  the  clergy  of  the  Church  of  England 
in  the  free  exercise  of  their  religion,  and  to 
suspend  all  laws  inflicting  penalties  for 
Nonconformity.  At  the  same  time  he  pro- 
mised to  abolish  the  Test  Acts,  and  to  give 
a  free  pardon  to  all  Nonconformists  and 
recusants.  This  again  was  a  double-edged 
boon,  and  it  is  greatly  to  the  credit  of  the 
leading  Nonconformists  that  they  were  not 
taken  in  by  it.  Some  few  addresses  of 
thanks  were  presented  to  the  King,  but  the 
London  ministers,  under  the  guidance  of 
John  Howe  and  Daniel  Williams,  refused  to 
support  a  policy  which  approved  the  dis- 
pensing power  of  the  King  and  threatened 


THE  REVOLUTION  189 

the  foundations  of  public  liberty.  There 
was  much  discussion  of  the  subject  all  over 
the  country,  and  leading  Churchmen  like  the 
Marquis  of  Halifax  urged  Nonconformists 
to  stand  by  the  side  of  the  Church  in  defend- 
ing the  Protestant  faith,  and  not  to  be 
led  astray  by  specious  promises  of  relief. 
They  hardly  needed  such  admonitions,  and 
none  rejoiced  more  than  the  Nonconformists 
to  find  that  there  were  many  Churchmen 
who  were  as  little  favourable  to  the  King's 
policy  as  they  were  themselves.  When  the 
Declaration  was  ordered  to  be  read  in  the 
churches  seven  of  the  bishops  refused.  This 
was,  they  said,  not  from  any  want  of  duty 
or  obedience  to  the  King,  not  from  any 
want  of  tenderness  to  Dissenters,  but  because 
the  Declaration  was  founded  upon  such  a 
dispensing  power  as  hath  been  often  de- 
clared illegal  in  Parliament.  The  King  sent 
the  bishops  to  the  Tower  and  put  them  on 
trial  for  a  seditious  libel  against  himself  and 
his  government.  But  the  jury  acquitted 
them  amid  the  most  rapturous  rejoicings  of 
the  whole  country.  For  the  moment  Church- 
men and  Nonconformists  were  drawn  very 
closely  together,  and  once  more  proposals 
were  made  for  reconciling  the  more  moderate 
Nonconformists  with  the  Establishment. 
There  was  to  be  a  revision  of  the  liturgy 
with  omission  of  some  "  ceremonies,"  and 
the  enforcement  of  discipline,  and  Arch- 
bishop Bancroft  urged  on  his  clergy  "  a  very 


140  NONCONFORMITY 

tender  regard  to  our  brethren  the  Protestant 
Dissenters." 

All  this  time  certain  of  the  Protestant 
notables  had  been  carrying  on  negotiations 
with  William  of  Orange,  and  in  1688  a 
formal  invitation  was  sent  to  him  to  avert 
by  force  of  arms  the  dangers  which  threatened 
the  religion  and  liberties  of  the  nation. 
William  responded  by  setting  sail  for  England 
with  a  large  Dutch  force,  having  inscribed 
on  his  banners,  "  The  Protestant  religion 
and  liberties  of  England."  James  tried  to 
forestall  his  coming  by  going  back  on  all  his 
demands  and  promising  full  freedom  and 
security  to  the  Protestant  faith.  But  it  was 
too  late.  After  some  days  of  hesitation  the 
country  rose  to  meet  William  and  acclaimed 
him  King  and  deliverer.  Just  at  the  end 
of  the  year  he  entered  London  in  state  amid 
every  sign  of  popular  enthusiasm.  A  week 
later  James  fled  from  the  country  and  so 
relieved  the  new  government  of  the  only 
obstacle  to  a  peaceful  settlement. 

The  task  that  confronted  William  III  was 
an  extremely  difficult  one.  He  was  a  Pro- 
testant and  a  Calvinist  with  a  deep  hatred 
for  Roman  Catholicism,  and  as  deep  a  dis- 
trust of  the  ecclesiastical  leanings  of  the 
High  Churchmen.  His  sympathies  were  all 
with  the  Nonconformists,  especially  with 
the  Presbyterians.  He  was  "  never  of  that 
mind  that  violence  was  suited  to  the  advanc- 
ing of  true  religion,"     Yet  he  came  to  be 


THE  REVOLUTION  141 

head  of  a  Church  which  had  Httle  or  no 
sympathy  with  his  own  position.  Born 
statesman  that  he  was,  he  soon  discovered 
that  he  must  maintain  good  relations  with 
the  heads  of  the  AngHcan  Church  however 
much  he  might  differ  from  them,  and  he 
was  content  that  his  poHcy  should  be  shaped 
by  the  general  interests  of  the  country  rather 
than  by  his  private  religious  views.  He 
firmly  resisted  the  suggestion  that  he  should 
be  Regent,  and  refused  to  play  the  lacquey 
to  his  wife.  When  he  and  Mary  were 
acknowledged  as  joint  sovereigns,  the  sole 
administration  lay  with  him.  At  the  same 
time  he  willingly  accepted  the  Declaration 
of  Rights  which  established  the  position  of 
Parliament  and  denied  the  right  of  the  King 
to  suspend  laws  or  raise  money  without  its 
consent.  It  also  secured  the  right  of  the 
subject  to  petition,  to  the  free  choice  of 
Parliamentary  representatives  and  to  a  pure 
administration  of  justice.  It  bound  the 
King  to  maintain  the  Protestant  faith  and 
liberty  of  religion  for  all  Protestants.  This 
was  the  beginning  of  constitutional  monarchy 
as  we  know  it  to-day.  The  King  became 
the  creature  of  an  Act  of  Parliament.  Parlia- 
ment secured  now  the  absolute  control  of 
finance,  and  the  King's  grant  of  revenue 
became  a  matter  of  annual  supply.  In  the 
same  way  Parliament  secured  control  of 
the  army,  by  making  the  powers  of  discipline 
and  the  granting  of  supplies  matter  of  an 


142  NONCONFORMITY 

annual  Act.  Thus  the  regular  assembly  of 
Parliament  became  necessary  in  order  to 
carry  on  the  King's  government.  Much 
of  this  was  not  at  all  to  William's  taste, 
but  after  a  single  outbreak  of  anger  he  had 
the  grace  to  acquiesce,  and  his  far-sighted 
complaisance  helped  to  lay  the  foundations 
of  the  new  order  strong  and  deep. 

The  first  measure  of  William's  reign  affecting 
religion  was  the  Toleration  Act.  Noncon- 
formists and  Churchmen,  no  longer  united 
by  opposition  to  a  common  foe,  soon  fell 
apart,  and  measures  for  comprehension  came 
to  nothing.  The  Toleration  Act  of  1689  showed 
very  clearly  the  relations  in  which  the  two 
parties  were  to  stand  towards  each  other. 
It  was  really  an  act  of  condescension  towards 
Nonconformity  on  the  part  of  the  dominant 
Church.  It  stereotyped  the  position  of  in- 
feriority and  sufferance  which  the  Noncon- 
formists were  henceforth  expected  to  maintain; 
But  at  the  same  time  it  established  freedom 
of  worship,  and  by  denying  to  the  Noncon- 
formists any  part  or  lot  in  the  Establishment, 
it  left  them  free  to  work  out  their  own 
salvation,  and  to  play  their  part  in  their  own 
way  in  the  religious  life  of  the  country.  It 
also  threw  Nonconformists  into  the  arms  of 
the  political  party  which  stood  for  freedom 
and  progress,  just  as  it  tended  to  stereotype 
the  Church  and  identify  it  with  the  forces 
of  conservatism.  For  the  moment,  too,  the 
Church   of    England   had   difficulties   of   her 


THE  REVOLUTION  143 

own  to  face.  Many  of  the  clergy  had  given 
only  a  haK-hearted  assent  to  the  Revolution. 
They  still  believed  in  the  doctrine  of  the 
divine  right  of  kings,  and  regarded  it  as  an 
outrage  that  the  oath  of  allegiance  to  the 
new  sovereigns  should  be  exacted  from  them. 
Sancroft,  Archbishop  of  Canterbury,  with 
certain  other  bishops  and  a  large  number  of 
clergy,  refused  altogether  to  take  the  oath  and 
regarded  those  who  took  it  as  schismatics. 
They  were  deprived  by  Act  of  ParHament, 
but  they  looked  upon  themselves  and  those 
who  acted  with  them  as  the  only  members 
of  the  true  Church  of  England,  and  behaved 
accordingly.  There  is  no  doubt  that  these 
Nonjurors,  as  they  were  called,  had  the 
sympathy  of  the  whole  of  the  High  Church 
party,  even  of  those  among  them  who  took 
the  oath.  Their  attitude  compelled  WilHam 
to  find  Church  leaders  among  the  Whigs 
and  Latitudinarians,  and  these  again  were 
alienated  from  the  great  body  of  the  clergy. 
Such  a  severance  greatly  weakened  the 
Church  and  was  the  cause  of  internal  strife 
which  lasted  for  many  years.  It  has  to  be 
reckoned  with  in  estimating  the  causes  of  the 
growth  of  Nonconformity. 

The  Toleration  Act  was  a  very  restricted 
boon.  It  suffered  Nonconformists  to  meet 
and  worship,  but  they  were  still  compelled 
to  subscribe  to  the  doctrinal  Articles  of  the 
Church  of  England,  and  to  pay  tithe  and 
Church  rates.     It  was  accepted  not  without 


144  NONCONFORMITY 

misgivings.  Baxter,  for  one,  scrupled  at 
signing  the  Athanasian  Creed,  declaring  that 
he  only  believed  in  its  positive  teaching  and 
not  in  the  damnatory  clauses.  At  the  same 
time  he  put  his  own  interpretation  on  the 
Articles  and  would  only  accept  them  as  he 
was  allowed  to  do  so.  He  was  not  without 
sympathisers  ;  and  from  this  time  forward 
we  can  trace  the  groAvth  of  the  movement 
towards  complete  intellectual  freedom  in 
matters  of  faith.  Soon  after  the  passing 
of  the  Act  appeared  John  Locke's  letters  on 
Toleration,  in  which  the  true  Nonconformist 
attitude  on  the  relations  of  Church  and  State 
was  set  forth  in  most  complete  and  masterly 
fashion.  Locke  had  been  trained  among 
Independents  and  had  imbibed  much  of  their 
spirit.  To  him  "  all  the  Hfe  and  power 
of  rehgion  consist  in  the  inward  persuasion 
of  the  mind  :  and  faith  is  not  faith  without 
believing.  The  civil  magistrate's  power  con- 
sists only  in  outward  force,  and  it  is  impossible 
for  the  understanding  to  be  compelled  to  the 
behef  of  anything  by  such  a  force.  Even  if 
the  rigour  of  the  law  could  change  men's 
opinions  it  would  not  help  to  the  salvation  of 
their  souls." 

Inadequate  as  it  was,  the  Toleration  Act 
produced  immediate  results.  Nonconformity 
began  to  breathe  freely  and  spread  with 
great  rapidity.  In  the  tAvelve  closing  years 
of  the  seventeenth  century  two  thousand 
four  hundred  and  eighteen  Dissenting  meeting- 


THE  REVOLUTION  145 

houses  were  licensed  for  public  worship. 
These  were  attended  by  people  of  all  classes 
and,  in  the  towns  at  least,  the  Noncon- 
formists were  among  the  most  substantial 
members  of  the  community.  They  began 
to  open  academies  for  the  education  of  their 
ministers,  and  schools  for  the  education  of 
the  children  of  the  poor.  Even  in  the  reign 
of  James,  one  such  school  was  founded  in 
Southwark  "  for  the  instruction  of  children 
in  reading,  writing,  and  arithmetic,  and  the 
girls  in  sewing  and  knitting  and  furnishing 
them  with  books  for  their  instruction  in 
these  arts,  and  with  Testaments,  catechisms, 
and  Bibles."  This  school  has  had  many 
imitators,  and  is  a  standing  witness  to  the 
interest  in  things  educational  which  has 
always  been  a  characteristic  of  Noncon- 
formists. 

They  were  not,  however,  altogether  free 
from  disabilities.  The  Test  and  Corporation 
Acts  were  still  in  force,  and  it  was  impossible 
to  hold  any  civil  office  without  first  taking 
the  sacrament  according  to  the  rites  of  the 
Church  of  England.  This  led  to  the  practice 
of  occasional  conformity  on  the  part  of  some 
Dissenters.  Of  these  not  a  few,  including 
some  leading  ministers  Hke  Howe,  conformed 
at  stated  times  in  order  that  they  might 
still  keep  up  some  connection  with  the  Church 
of  their  Fathers.  But  others  regarded  the 
rite  as  a  mere  form  necessary  to  the  main- 
tenance of  their  position  as  English  citizens. 


146  NONCONFORMITY 

It  became  to  them  "  an  office  key,  a  picklock 
to  a  place."  By  many  Nonconformists  this 
practice  was  roundly  condemned,  and  the 
subject  was  a  matter  of  sharp  controversy. 
It  brought  forth  Daniel  Defoe's  pamphlet 
on  The  Practice  of  Occasional  Conformity^ 
in  which  it  was  argued  that  if  occasional 
conformity  was  allowable,  then  Dissent  was  a 
sin ;  but  if  Dissent  was  right,  then  conformity, 
occasional  or  otherwise,  was  the  sin.  The 
sharpness  with  which  this  dilemma  is  stated 
illustrates  the  temper  of  the  times,  and  the 
spirit  of  a  toleration  which  was  equally  stiff 
on  both  sides  and  had  no  room  for  the 
charity  that  thinketh  no  evil. 

It  will  be  convenient  at  this  point  to  sum  up 
briefly  and  in  general  terms  the  position  of 
the  various  Nonconformist  bodies  under  the 
first  few  years  of  the  Toleration  Act,  and  to 
discover  how  much  truth  there  was  in  the 
opinion  expressed  by  Bishop  Burnet  that 
Dissent  was  likely  to  die  out  within  the 
generation  then  existing.  The  statement 
was  only  warranted  by  the  fact  that  Noncon- 
formists had  flourished  under  persecution, 
and  that  many  of  the  men  who  had  led  them 
in  the  days  of  trial  were  now  old  or  dead. 
The  Congregationalists  especially  had  suffered 
in  this  way.  Their  leading  ministers  were 
Matthew  Mead  of  Stepney,  a  mild  and 
laborious  man,  Isaac  Chauncey  of  Mark 
Lane,  and  Stephen  Lobb,  a  Jacobite  Dissenter, 
of  Fetter  Lane.     The  Presbyterians,  on  the 


THE  REVOLUTION  147 

other  hand,  had  nearly  all  their  old  leaders 

living.     Baxter  was  drawing  near  the  end  of 

his  pilgrimage,  but  he  still  counted.     Howe 

was  in  his  sixtieth  year,   a  most  moderate 

Presbyterian  and  the  friend  of  all  the  sects 

as  well  as  of  the  Established  Church.     With 

him    stood    the    silver-tongued    Bates,    and 

Samuel    Annesley,    Matthew   Sylvester,   and 

Dr.  Daniel  Williams.     These  represented  the 

great   preachers    of    London,   and   they  had 

brethren  in  other  parts  of  the  country  who 

were    not    unworthy    of    them.     Under    the 

influence  of   Baxter  and  Howe  on  the  one 

side,   and  of  Mead  on  the  other,   proposals 

were    now    made    for    union    betv/een    the 

Congregational      and     Presbyterian     bodies. 

Certain    articles    of    agreement    were    drawn 

up  and  assented  to  by  the  ministers  in  and 

about    London.     The     articles     provide     an 

interesting    amalgam    of    the    two    polities. 

The   right    of   each   congregation   to   choose 

its  own  officers  is  recognised,  as  also  is  the 

right    of   ministers   and   elders   to   rule   and 

govern  with  the  consent  of  the  brotherhood. 

The  ministry  is  to  be  elected  by  the  Churches, 

and   it   is    "  ordinarily  requisite "   that    the 

pastors   of  the  neighbouring   Churches  shall 

concur  in  the  election.     Synods  are  to  be  called 

for   advice   and  consultation,   and   Churches 

should    take    note    of    their    decisions.     The 

question   of  ruling  elders   is  left   open,   and 

so  far  as  theology  is  concerned  the  Divine 

origin  of  the  Scriptures,  and  the  doctrinal 


148  NONCONFORMITY 

parts  of  the  Articles,  or  of  the  Westminster 
or  Savoy  Confessions,  are  all  that  need  be 
required  of  any  Church.  Though  the  Churches 
were  not  consulted  in  the  negotiations,  this 
scheme  appears  to  have  been  accepted 
without  question  in  many  parts  of  the 
country.  But  the  reconciliation  was  as 
premature  as  it  was  incomplete.  Some  Con- 
gregational ministers  never  accepted  it,  and 
disputes  on  doctrinal  points  soon  broke  out. 
There  was  no  real  theological  unity  between 
Independents  and  Presbyterians.  The  former 
were  Calvinists  of  a  much  sterner  type  than 
the  latter,  and  the  two  bodies  were  not  pre- 
pared as  yet  to  dwell  together  in  peace. 
The  scheme  came  to  nothing,  though  the 
long-drawn-out  controversy  was  not  allowed 
to  hinder  friendly  relations.  The  denomina- 
tional distinctions  tended  from  this  time 
forward  to  become  more  fixed,  and  each  of 
these  great  bodies  had  its  own  history  and 
played  its  part  in  the  religious  life  of  the 
country. 

The  Baptists  were  considerably  weaker 
than  either  the  Presbyterians  or  the  Con- 
gregationalists.  They  suffered  from  internal 
divisions,  the  Particular  Baptists  being  ex- 
treme Calvinists,  while  the  General  Baptists 
were  much  more  liberal  in  their  views.  As 
might  be  expected  from  their  history  the 
Baptists  were  strongly  opposed  to  a  State 
Church  and  to  the  use  of  the  secular  power 
to    support    or    antagonise    religion.     They 


THE  REVOLUTION  149 

believed  that  Christ's  "  spiritual  Kingdom, 
which  is  His  Church  here  on  earth,  ought 
not  to  be  set  up  or  forced  either  by  the  sword 
or  any  civil  law  whatsoever,  but  by  the 
preaching  of  the  Gospel,  which  is  the  sword 
of  the  Spirit  and  the  word  of  God."  At  the 
period  with  which  we  are  dealing,  the  Baptists 
did  not  make  very  rapid  progress.  They  held 
more  than  one  Assembly  in  order  to  discuss 
the  condition  of  their  denomination,  which 
even  they  themselves  could  not  regard  as 
satisfactory. 

The  Quakers,  on  the  other  hand,  were  still 
active  and  progressive.  In  some  respects 
they  were  the  most  important  of  the  Non- 
conformist bodies,  and  were  the  subjects 
of  special  legislation,  as,  e.g.,  in  regard  to  the 
taking  of  the  oath,  on  more  than  one  occasion. 
George  Fox  and  Barclay  were  still  living. 
Penn  had  as  great  a  political  influence  as  any 
man  of  his  time,  and  George  Whitehead  was 
one  of  the  most  effective  preachers  of  the 
day.  Many  new  Quaker  meeting-places 
were  opened  after  the  passing  of  the  Toleration 
Act,  and  those  who  attended  them  were  the 
salt  of  Nonconformity. 

This  same  period  also  saw  the  beginnings 
of  a  definite  movement  towards  Socinianism. 
Attacks  on  Trinitarian  doctrine  were  not 
infrequent  both  inside  the  Established  Church 
and  from  without  it.  They  gave  rise  to  a 
wordy  warfare  in  sermons  and  pamphlets,  and 
Tillotson  was  driven  to  admit  of  the  Socinians 


150  NONCONFORMITY 

that  "  They  are  a  pattern  of  the  fair  way  of 
disputing  :  they  argue  without  passion,  with 
decency,  dignity,  clearness,  and  gravity." 
As  much  could  hardly  be  said  of  those  on 
the  other  side.  There  was  no  toleration 
for  Socinians.  To  clergy  and  ministers  alike 
they  were  no  better  than  "  impious  blas- 
phemers," and  the  House  of  Commons  readily 
passed  an  Act  prohibiting  the  publication  of 
attacks  on  the  doctrine  of  the  Trinity,  and 
visiting  those  who  offended  in  this  matter 
with  a  kind  of  outlawry. 

As  regards  the  relations  between  the  various 
denominations  there  is  not  much  to  be  said. 
The  Quakers  and  Baptists  stood  aloof  from 
all  intercourse,  either  with  one  another  or  with 
the  other  Churches.  The  Congregationalists 
and  Presbyterians,  as  we  have  seen,  were 
accustomed  to  act  together,  and  without  any 
formal  union  easily  combined  when  their 
common  interests  required  it.  As  regards 
the  Church  of  England,  the  Presbyterians 
were  the  most  friendly,  and  hesitated  to  take 
up  any  attitude  which  should  emphasise 
their  separation  from  the  national  Church. 
It  was  among  them  that  the  practice  of 
occasional  conformity  was  most  prevalent. 
On  the  other  hand,  neither  Quakers  nor 
Baptists  held  any  religious  communion  with 
members  of  the  Established  Church,  and 
some  of  the  Baptists  went  so  far  as  to  prohibit 
attendance  at  Anglican  places  of  worship, 
and   to   forbid   social   intercourse  and  inter- 


THE  REVOLUTION  151 

marriage  with  Anglicans.  The  attitude  of 
the  Congregationalists  was  between  these 
two  extremes.  They  succeeded  in  distinguish- 
ing more  clearly  than  some  of  their  con- 
temporaries between  the  Church  as  a  religous 
institution  and  as  a  State  establishment — a 
distinction  which  later  on  became  of  vital 
importance. 

As  the  separation  between  Whigs  and 
Tories  in  politics  became  more  marked  the 
Nonconformists  naturally  identified  them- 
selves with  the  former,  and,  as  naturally, 
they  suffered  from  the  Tory  reaction  in  the 
latter  days  of  William's  reign.  At  this 
period  there  was  a  very  real  division  between 
the  bishops  and  the  great  body  of  the  clergy. 
The  bishops  were,  generally  speaking.  Whig, 
and  prepared  to  accept  the  revolution  and 
all  its  consequences.  They  were  favourable 
to  Nonconformists  and  not  disposed  to  make 
too  much  of  the  divisions  which  separated 
these  from  the  Church.  To  a  man  like 
Bishop  Burnet,  with  his  masculine  common 
sense,  the  causes  of  division  were  very  small 
things  indeed,  beside  the  great  points  in 
which  he  regarded  all  Christians  as  agreed. 
The  great  bulk  of  the  clergy,  on  the  other  hand, 
had  more  sympathy  with  the  nonjurors 
than  with  the  bishops.  They  made  no 
secret  of  their  Jacobite  leanings  on  the  one 
hand,  and  of  their  hatred  of  Dissenters  on  the 
other.  It  was  under  the  guidance  of  such 
men    that     Convocation    began    to    assert 


152  NONCONFORMITY 

itself  and  that  the  Episcopal  and  sacerdotal 
positions  were  pressed  to  the  extremes  with 
which  we  are  familiar  to-day.  High  Church- 
men of  this  type  were  sworn  enemies  of 
the  toleration  policy,  and  received  the  news 
of  William's  death  in  1702  with  every  sign 
of  exultation. 


CHAPTER  IX 

REACTION   AND   DECLINE 

When  Anne  came  to  the  throne  in  1702 
the  Tory  reaction  was  in  full  flood.  The 
Queen  herself  avowed  the  strongest  High 
Church  principles  and  had  no  love  for  Dis- 
senters. When  the  three  denominations,  Pres- 
byterians, Congregationalists,  and  Baptists, 
united  to  present  her  with  a  loyal  address 
on  her  accession  she  received  them  in  silence, 
and,  in  her  first  speeches  from  the  throne, 
while  promising  to  maintain  the  Act  of 
Toleration,  she  spoke  of  her  interest  in  the 
rehgion  of  the  Church  of  England,  and  of 
her  determination  to  countenance  those  who 
were  zealous  to  support  it.  She  speedily  rid 
herself  of  the  Whig  leaders  of  Wilham's  time, 
and  supplied  their  places  with  men  of  Tory 
sympathies  like  Marlborough,  Godolphin, 
and   Harley.     In  all  this  the  High  Church 


REACTION  AND  DECLINE        153 

party  saw  their  opportunity  and  set  about 
an  agitation,  first  for  the  suppression  of  the 
Dissenting  Academies,  and  secondly  for  the 
repeal  of  the  Occasional  Conformity  Act. 
They  found  a  ready  tool  in  Henry  Sach- 
everell,  a  bigoted  and  unscrupulous  clergy- 
man, who  was  past  master  in  the  arts  of 
the  demagogue,  and,  by  the  violence  of 
his  preaching,  easily  able  to  inflame  the 
popular  feehng  against  the  Nonconformists. 
He  denounced  the  Academies  as  being  a 
danger  to  Church  and  State,  "fountains  of 
lewdness  from  which  were  spawned  all 
descriptions  of  heterodox,  lewd,  and  athe- 
istical books."  In  this  campaign  he  was  well 
seconded  by  Samuel  Wesley,  the  father  of 
John  Wesley,  who  wrote  a  "Letter  from  a 
country  Divine  concerning  the  education  of 
Dissenters  in  their  private  Academies  in 
several  parts  of  the  nation."  Wesley  almost 
outdid  Sacheverell  in  the  violence  of  his 
abuse,  and  the  controversy  to  which  his 
writings  gave  rise  shows  clearly  enough  that 
these  hated  Academies  had  reached  such  a 
position  of  influence  and  usefulness  as  to 
be  feared  with  some  reason  by  those  who 
objected  to  Dissent.  It  was  even  urged  that 
they  "  endangered  the  success  of  the  two 
ancient  Universities,"  in  that  they  inter- 
cepted many  who  would  otherwise  have 
sought  their  education  there.  Such  re- 
proaches came  well  from  those  who  at  the 
same    time    taunted    Dissenters    with    their 


154  NONCONFORMITY 

ignorance.  As  one  of  the  replies  to  Wesley 
said,  "  He  excludes  them  from  the  fountain 
of  learning,  nor  will  he  allow  them  to  drink 
water  out  of  their  own  cisterns.  He  would 
have  them  punished  for  using  the  means  of 
knowledge  and  yet  damns  them  for  the 
prejudices  of  ignorance."  The  controversy 
is  interesting  as  opening  up  the  question  of 
the  relation  of  Nonconformists  to  the  Uni- 
versities, the  source  of  a  grievance  which 
remained  unredressed  for  many  years. 

Among  the  host  of  writers  which  these 
disputes  brought  forth  one  of  the  most 
vigorous  and  effective  was  Defoe,  though  he 
was  by  no  means  regarded  with  favour  by 
those  whose  cause  he  espoused.  It  was  in 
answer  to  Sacheverell  that  he  wrote  his 
Shortest  Way  with  Dissenters,  a  satire  on  the 
Sacheverell  manner,  in  which  he  suggested 
that  lay  Nonconformists  should  be  banished 
and  their  ministers  hanged.  This  was  taken 
quite  seriously  by  the  High  Church  party 
with  whose  desires  it  was  altogether  in 
agreement,  and  when  they  discovered  the 
hoax  they  were  furious.  Defoe  was  fined, 
pilloried,  and  imprisoned,  and  his  book  burnt 
by  the  common  hangman,  but  not  before  it 
had  done  its  work.  The  curious  thing  is 
that  the  Dissenters  themselves  failed  to  see 
through  it,  or  refused  to  believe  that  it 
was  not  meant  seriously,  and  the  unfortunate 
author  thus  fell  between  two  stools. 

The  Bill  for  the  prevention  of  Occasional 


REACTION  AND  DECLINE         155 

Conformity  was  introduced  at  the  instance 
of  the  University  members  in  ParUament, 
and  passed  the  Commons  by  a  large  majority. 
It  was  intended  to  exclude  Dissenters  alto- 
gether from  the  public  life  of  the  country,  and 
from  civil,  mihtary,  and  naval  offices.  The 
Lords,  however,  who  still  retained  something  of 
their  old  Whig  feeling,  amended  the  Bill  in 
important  particulars,  and  returned  it  to  the 
Commons.  It  was  then  considered  for  some 
time  in  conference  between  the  two  Houses 
and  was  finally  rejected  in  the  Lords,  fourteen 
Bishops  voting  in  the  majority.  The  excite- 
ment which  this  struggle  caused  was  intense, 
and  the  whole  country  seemed  to  share  in 
the  resentment  which  the  rejection  of  the 
Bill  created.  Swift,  in  one  of  his  letters  to 
Stella,  writes:  "I  wish  you  had  been  here 
for  ten  days,  during  the  highest  and  warmest 
reign  of  party  and  faction  that  I  ever  knew 
or  read  of  upon  the  Bill  against  occasional 
conformity  which  two  days  ago  was,  upon 
the  first  reading,  rejected  by  the  Lords.  It 
was  so  universal  that  I  observed  the  dogs  in 
the  streets  were  much  more  contumeHous  and 
quarrelsome  than  usual,  and  the  very  night 
before  the  Bill  went  up,  a  committee  of 
Whig  and  Tory  cats  had  a  very  warm  and 
loud  debate  upon  the  roof  of  our  house. 
But  why  should  we  wonder  at  that,  when  the 
very  ladies  are  split  asunder  into  High  Church 
and  Low,  and  out  of  zeal  for  rehgion  have 
hardly  time  to  say  their  prayers.     For  the 


156  NONCONFORMITY 

rest,  the  whole  body  of  the  clergy  with  a  great 
majority  of  the  House  of  Commons  were  very 
violent  for  this  Bill." 

The  failure  of  this  attack  only  served  to 
increase  the  hatred  of  Dissenters  felt  by  the 
clergy  and  by  a  very  large  section  of  the 
populace.     Sacheverell    continued    his    cam- 
paign of  calumny,  and  brought  matters  to  a 
head  in  a  famous  sermon  before  the  Lord 
Mayor  and  Corporation  of  London  on  "  Perils 
from   False    Brethren."      In   it   he   asserted 
in    the    strongest    terms    the    High    Church 
doctrine  of  non-resistance,  and  charged  with 
rebellion  and  high  treason  all  who  did  not 
agree   with   him.     The    Dissenters    came    in 
for  the  usual  measure  of  abuse.     They  were 
"  monsters    and    vipers,"    "  filthy    dreamers 
and    despisers    of    dominion,"    "  miscreants 
begat  in  rebellion,  born  in  sedition  and  nursed 
in  faction,"  and  much  more  of  the  same  kind. 
Forty  thousand  copies  of  this   "  sweet  dis- 
course "    were   circulated.     But   it   was    too 
strong  meat  for  the  Government,  especially 
as  it  contained  some  contemptuous  references 
to  Godolphin,  the  first  minister  of  the  Crown. 
Sacheverell    was   impeached    and    sentenced 
to  deprivation  for  three  years  and  to  have 
his  offending  sermons  burnt  by  the  hangman. 
He  at  once  became  a  popular  hero.     After  his 
suspension    he    made    a   kind   of    triumphal 
progress  through  the  country,  and  was  every- 
where received  with  the  wildest  enthusiasm. 
"High  Church  and  Dr.  Sacheverell"  became 


REACTION  AND  DECLINE         157 

the  popular  cry.  There  were  dangerous 
riots  in  many  places  in  which  the  Dissenters 
suffered  from  the  fury  of  the  mob,  and  many 
meeting-houses  were  burnt  down.  The  whole 
agitation  was  used  to  the  utmost  by  the 
Church  party  and  the  Tories  to  bring  the 
Whigs  into  unpopularity  and  to  show  them  up 
as  enemies  of  religion  and  of  the  Crown.  It 
succeeded  only  too  well.  In  1711  another 
Bill  against  occasional  conformity  was 
brought  in  and  passed  both  Houses  without 
difficulty.  It  provided  that  all  persons 
holding  any  public  office,  if  they  attended 
any  meeting  for  divine  worship  where  the 
Book  of  Common  Prayer  was  not  used,  should 
forfeit  their  office  and  pay  a  fine  of  £40, 
the  money  to  go  to  the  informer.  Such 
persons  were  to  be  held  incapable  of  office 
until  they  could  prove  that  they  had  attended 
no  conventicle  for  a  year.  It  was  clearly  seen 
by  the  Whigs  that  the  exclusion  of  all  Dis- 
senters from  public  offices  would  probably 
imperil  the  Hanoverian  succession.  The 
leading  Dissenters  were  therefore  begged  to 
retain  their  public  positions,  and  were  pro- 
mised relief  in  a  new  reign.  Most  of  them 
seem  to  have  yielded  to  this  political  pressure. 
They  ceased  to  attend  conventicles  and  had 
services  with  private  chaplains  in  their  own 
houses. 

The  next  blow  was  a  much  more  serious 
one.  It  was  the  result  of  the  agitation  set 
on  foot  by  Sacheverell  and  Wesley  against 


158  NONCONFORMITY 

the  Academies,  and  it  took  the  shape  of  a 
Bill  "  to  prevent  the  growth  of  Schism,  and 
for  the   further   security   of  the   Church   of 
England  as  by  law  established,"  which  was 
introduced   in   1714.     This   enacted  that   no 
person  should  teach  or  instruct  youth  either 
privately,  or  in  a  school  or  college,  without 
conforming  to  the   Church  of  England  and 
obtaining    a    licence    from    a   bishop.     The 
penalty    attached    was    three    months'    im- 
prisonment.    It    further    provided    that    no 
licensed  teacher  was  to  teach  any  catechism 
but  that  of  the  Church  of  England.     Any 
person,    however,    who   lost    his    licence   for 
teaching   an   unauthorised   catechism   might 
recover    it    on    swearing    that    he    had    not 
attended  a  conventicle  for  a  year  and,  during 
the  year,  had  three  times  received  the  sacra- 
ment in  the  Church  of  England.     The  Bill 
was   passed   with    certain    amendments    ex- 
empting   from    its    provisions    teachers    in 
elementary    secular    subjects    and    tutors    in 
noble  families.     Before  it  came  into  opera- 
tion, however,  the  Queen  died,  and  it  was 
repealed  early  in  the  new  reign. 

For  the  moment,  however,  the  outlook 
for  Nonconformists  was  very  dark.  On  the 
Sunday  morning  that  the  Schism  Act  was 
to  be  enforced,  Thomas  Bradbury,  Inde- 
pendent minister  of  the  church  in  Fetter 
Lane,  met  Bishop  Burnet,  who  rallied  him 
on  his  desponding  looks.  "  I  am  thinking," 
said  Bradbury,   "  whether  I  shall  have  the 


REACTION  AND  DECLINE         159 

constancy  and  resolution  of  that  noble 
company  of  martyrs  whose  ashes  are  de- 
posited in  this  place,  for  I  most  assuredly 
expect  to  see  similar  times  of  persecution 
and  violence  and  that  I  shall  be  called  to 
suffer  in  a  like  cause."  The  Bishop  then 
told  him  that  the  Queen  was  dying,  and 
promised  to  send  a  messenger  to  Bradbury's 
chui'ch  if  the  end  came  during  the  morning. 
While  Bradbury  was  preaching  the  expected 
tidings  were  brought.  He  finished  his  sermon, 
and  in  his  closing  prayer  spoke  of  George, 
King  of  Great  Britain  and  Ireland.  As  Dr. 
Dale  says,  it  was  not  unfitting  that  the  first 
public  announcement  of  the  accession  of  the 
house  of  Hanover  should  be  made  in  a 
Nonconformist  meeting-house. 

At  the  time  of  the  death  of  Queen  Anne, 
the  spiritual  condition  of  the  Nonconformists 
was  by  no  means  satisfactory.  They  had 
suffered  from  Indulgence  and  the  promise 
of  Indulgence  more  than  they  did  from 
persecution.  No  really  trustworthy  statistics 
are  available,  but  such  as  there  are  seem  to 
point  to  the  fact  that  their  numbers  did  not 
grow  during  Anne's  reign,  and  there  are 
complaints  of  secession  on  the  part  of  younger 
members  to  the  Established  Church.  Though 
the  Nonconformists  stood  for  liberty  and 
progress,  they  were  really  very  conservative 
in  many  respects.  Theologically  they  had 
changed  little,  and  they  still  indulged  in 
sermons   and   prayers   of   inordinate   length. 


160  NONCONFORMITY 

Their  public  services,  which  had  lost  much 
of  the  old  fervour,  were  often  dull  and  lifeless. 
They  were  suffering  from  the  spirit  of  com- 
promise, which  had  not  only  crept  into  their 
church  life  but  had  affected  all  their  conduct. 
Burnet,  who  was  no  unfriendly  critic,  charges 
them  with  having  forfeited  much  of  their 
reputation  for  strictness.  The  decline  con- 
tinued during  the  reign  of  the  first  two 
Georges,  and  it  is  said  that  in  this  time 
more  than  fifty  Nonconformist  ministers 
joined  the  State  Church. 

On  the  accession  of  George  I  in  1714,  the 
Dissenting  ministers  of  London  presented 
him  with  a  loyal  address.  As  they  ap- 
proached the  King  in  their  Geneva  gowns, 
a  nobleman  of  the  Court  said  to  Bradbury, 
"  Is  this  a  funeral  ?  "  "  No,  my  lord,"  he 
replied,  "it  is  a  resurrection."  The  words 
exactly  express  the  spirit  with  which  the 
Nonconformists  viewed  the  new  reign.  The 
first  months  of  it  were  very  much  disturbed. 
The  Jacobite  outbreaks  had  to  be  dealt 
with,  and  the  Church  and  Tory  partisans 
showed  their  hostility  to  the  house  of 
Hanover  by  burning  meeting-houses  in  many 
parts  of  the  country.  Through  all  these 
troubles  the  Dissenters  gave  repeated  tokens 
of  their  loyalty,  and  among  the  first  legis- 
lative measures  of  the  reign  was  the  repeal 
of  the  Occasional  Conformity  and  Schism 
Acts.  When  George  II  came  to  the  throne 
in  1727,  the  first  Annual  Bill  of  Indemnity 


REACTION  AND  DECLINE         161 

was  passed  for  relieving  Dissenters  from  the 
penalties  incurred  by  violating  the  Test  and 
Corporation  Acts.  This,  however,  was  a 
very  inadequate  form  of  relief,  and  agitation 
was  at  once  begun  for  obtaining  the  repeal 
of  the  obnoxious  measm-e.  This  led  to  the 
definite  organisation  of  the  Dissenting 
Deputies  representing  the  three  great  de- 
nominations. It  was  the  first  attempt  to 
band  Nonconformists  together  for  the  pro- 
tection of  their  civil  rights,  and  the  society, 
which  is  still  in  existence,  performed  yeoman 
service  in  all  the  struggles  for  religious 
liberty  which  were  yet  in  store.  Their  first 
efforts  met  with  very  little  sympathy  from 
Walpole.  He  had  burnt  his  fingers  in  trying 
to  obtain  some  relief  for  Quakers  in  the 
matter  of  Church  rates,  and  he  was  very 
loath  to  face  the  cry,  "  The  Church  in  danger." 
All  attempts  to  secure  the  repeal  of  the  Acts 
through  independent  Members  of  Parlia- 
ment failed,  and  the  matter  was  left  to  rest 
till  1787.  But  Walpole  knew  a  better  way. 
It  was  a  favourite  doctrine  with  him  that 
every  man  had  his  price.  When,  therefore, 
it  was  suggested  that  the  King  should  make 
a  grant  from  the  Royal  purse  for  the  relief 
of  Dissenters  he  welcomed  the  idea  eagerly. 
Thus  the  Regium  Bonum  was  established. 
At  first  five  hundred  a  year,  and  later  on  a 
thousand  a  year,  was  given  to  certain  ministers 
to  be  distributed  at  their  discretion  among 
the  widows  of  ministers  and  poor  ministers. 

F 


162  NONCONFORMITY 

There  can  be  no  doubt  that  this  did  much 
harm.  It  acted,  as  Walpole  intended  that 
it  should,  as  a  sop,  and  is  very  likely  re- 
sponsible for  the  delay  in  the  agitation  for 
repeal  of  the  Test  Acts,  and  for  the  lethargic 
condition  of  Nonconformity  at  this  period. 

But  there  was  yet  another  cause  which 
contributed  to  the  same  result.  In  1712  one 
Thomas  Emlyn,  a  minister  in  Dublin,  wrote 
a  book  confessing  a  very  mild  type  of 
Unitarianism.  He  was  prosecuted,  fined  a 
thousand  pounds,  and  imprisoned  till  the 
fine  should  be  paid.  The  case  excited  some 
attention  and  was  the  beginning  of  the 
renewal  of  the  Unitarian  controversy.  The 
trouble  began  in  Exeter,  where  one  James 
Pierce,  a  man  of  great  ability  and  influence, 
with  two  or  three  other  Presbyterian  ministers, 
was  suspected  of  Arianism.  After  discus- 
sions in  the  Assembly  of  Devon  and  Cornwall, 
the  matter  was  referred  to  seven  ministers 
who,  on  the  advice  of  some  of  their  brethren 
in  London,  drew  up  a  kind  of  ultimatum 
for  the  direction  of  the  managers  of  the 
Exeter  churches.  These  managers,  after 
interviews  with  the  erring  ministers,  dis- 
missed two  of  them.  Pierce  and  Hallet,  from 
their  churches.  Meanwhile  the  question  was 
being  discussed  in  London.  A  meeting  of 
the  general  body  of  Dissenters  was  held  in 
Salter's  Hall,  at  which  it  appeared  that  there 
were  many  London  ministers  who  were  in 
sympathy  with  the  Exeter  heretics.     When 


REACTION  AND  DECLINE         163 

at  a  further  meeting,  an  attempt  was  made 
to  obtain  the  assent  of  those  present  to  a 
declaration  of  beUef  in  the  Doctrines  of  the 
Trinity  and  of  the  Divinity  of  our  Lord, 
the  company  at  once  divided  into  sub- 
scribers and  non-subscribers.  Each  then 
constituted  their  own  assembly,  the  large 
majority  of  the  non-subscribers  being  Presby- 
terians, while  the  subscribing  assembly  con- 
sisted mainly  of  Congregationalists  and 
Baptists  under  the  leadership  of  Thomas 
Bradbury.  This  division  marked  a  real 
doctrinal  rupture  between  Congregationalists 
and  Presbyterians  The  non-subscribers  re- 
pudiated Arianism,  but  many  of  them  later 
became  Unitarians  and  were  the  founders 
of  the  Unitarian  denomination,  while  eighteen 
or  twenty  of  them,  under  some  curious 
process  of  reaction,  signed  the  thirty-nine 
Articles  and  joined  the  Church  of  England. 

The  Salter's  Hall  controversy  had  thus 
very  important  results.  It  meant  almost 
the  temporary  extinction  of  Presbyterianism 
and  a  great  strengthening  of  Congrega- 
tionalism. Many  of  the  subscribing  Presby- 
terians joined  Congregational  Churches,  and 
some  subscribing  Churches  were  obliged  to 
obtain  their  ministers  from  Congregational 
Academies.  A  few  Independent  ministers 
went  over,  the  most  notable  among  them 
being  James  Foster,  the  minister  of  the 
Pinner's  Hall  Church.  Many  others  of  them, 
however,  were  profoundly  influenced  by  the 

F  2, 


164  NONCONFORMITY 

rationalising  spirit  of  the  time,  and  it  must 
be  confessed  that  the  spread  of  Deism  was 
felt  in  Nonconformist  pulpits  and  contributed 
powerfully  to  the  barrenness  of  the  churches 
in  this  period.  The  older  Independent 
theologians  had  written  and  spoken  more 
as  prophets  than  as  philosophers.  They 
were  entrusted  with  a  word  of  the  Lord 
and  they  gave  utterance  to  it  in  no  uncertain 
fashion.  But  in  the  period  we  have  now 
reached  preachers  attempted  to  rationalise 
their  message  and  to  argue  for  its  accept- 
ance on  philosophical  grounds.  Conspicuous 
among  such  men  were  Philip  Doddridge  and 
Isaac  Watts.  The  former  was  a  devout  and 
earnest  soul  whose  own  religious  experience 
saved  him  from  any  serious  theological 
extravagances.  He  was  eager,  however,  to 
soften  down  the  asperities  of  the  current 
Calvinism,  and,  so  far  as  he  could,  to  disarm 
criticism  by  making  faith  reasonable.  Watts 
laid  all  the  Churches  under  obligation  by 
his  hymns.  Some  of  them,  no  doubt,  are 
now  entirely  obsolete,  but  there  are  others 
which  will  live  as  long  as  sacred  song  does. 
And  it  may  be  said  of  all  of  them  that  they 
were  so  great  an  improvement  on  anything 
that  had  gone  before  as  to  amount  to  a 
revolution.  Though  he  never  inclined  to 
Arianism,  Watts  showed  some  curious  theo- 
logical aberrations.  He  was  a  man  of  keen 
and  speculative  intellect  and  was  very 
much  under  the  influence  of  the  rationalising 


REACTION  AND  DECLINE         165 

tendency.  Along  with  these  may  be  men- 
tioned Matthew  Henry,  who  died  in  1714, 
with  his  great  commentary  on  the  Scrip- 
tures unfinished.  This  monumental  work  re- 
mained the  standard  of  scripture  exposition 
for  many  generations  and  is  even  used 
to-day.  It  was  a  work  of  immense  industry, 
and  fertile  in  illustration  and  suggestion. 
Its  influence  on  preachers  was  very  great, 
and  it  helped  to  keep  the  pulpit  true  to  the 
Bible  in  an  age  when  the  danger  of  mere 
speculation  was  very  real. 

One  good  effect  of  the  Salter's  Hall  con- 
troversy was  the  impetus  it  gave  to  the 
feeling  against  subscription  to  creeds.  This 
was  shared  equally  by  subscribers  and  non- 
subscribers,  and  was  fostered  also  by  the 
rationalistic  movement.  It  led,  however,  to 
a  spirit  of  indifferentism  in  the  churches 
and  to  a  low  conception  of  Christian  obliga- 
tion in  life  as  well  as  in  creed.  Noncon- 
formity is  always  the  fruit  of  deep  con- 
viction and  the  expression  of  a  vigorous 
religious  life.  Where  these  are  not  it  has 
little  or  no  reason  to  exist,  and  remains  but 
an  empty  shell.  It  was  no  wonder,  therefore, 
that  at  this  time  "  the  decay  of  the  Dis- 
senting interest "  seemed  to  many  close 
observers  to  be  imminent.  None  were  more 
conscious  of  this  decline  than  the  Noncon- 
formist leaders  themselves,  and  it  may  at 
least  be  said  for  them  that  they  did  their 
best  to  diagnose  the  mischief  and  to  suggest 


166  NONCONFORMITY 

remedies.  From  this  period  date  a  number 
of  most  interesting  pamphlets  dealing  with 
the  decay  of  dissent  and  with  the  need  for 
religious  revival,  which  throw  much  light 
on  the  spiritual  condition  both  of  the  churches 
and  of  the  people  generally.  Among  the 
causes  alleged  for  the  decline  among  Dis- 
senters the  most  important  is  stated  as 
"  Ignorance  of  their  own  principles."  The 
fundamental  principle  of  Nonconformity  is 
said  to  be  liberty,  and  the  times  were  such 
that  men  tended  to  lose  the  good  old  Puritan 
conception  of  the  value  of  liberty  in  religion. 
They  were  too  ready  to  make  terms  with 
the  Established  Church,  and  to  entrust  the 
education  of  their  children  to  institutions 
managed  by  that  Church.  So  among  them- 
selves also  there  was  some  danger  of  for- 
getting the  freedom  of  the  spirit  in  the 
desire  to  secure  uniformity  of  doctrine  if  not 
of  worship.  The  ministers  are  not  allowed 
sufficient  freedom  in  preaching,  and  the 
people  are  not  willing  "to  be  instructed  by 
those  who  have  the  courage  to  teach  them 
even  disagreeable  truths,  rather  than  flat- 
tered into  what  may  possibly  be  false,  and 
if  it  be  true,  is  of  the  least  importance  in 
religion."  It  is  complained  that  congrega- 
tions are  too  jealous  of  heresy  in  their 
younger  ministers,  and  that  the  form  in 
which  truth  is  stated  is  held  to  be  almost 
more  important  than  the  substance.  Then 
again,  the  ministry  is  not  held  in  sufficient 


REACTION  AND  DECLINE         167 

estimation.  It  is  badly  paid  and  no  induce- 
ment is  provided  for  men  of  good  family 
and  education  to  enter  its  ranks.  The 
academies  are  not  doing  all  that  they  should. 
The  education  given  in  them  needs  to  be 
of  a  higher  standard,  with  a  clear  distinction 
between  the  courses  in  Arts  and  Theology. 
There  should  be  more  attention  paid  to 
homiletics  and  deportment,  and  one  writer 
quoted  by  Dr.  Dale  says,  "  It  may  seem  odd 
and  whimsical  to  propose  a  dancing-master 
for  one  tutor  at  an  academy  :  but  if  some- 
thing equivalent  to  it  w^as  contrived  to  give 
the  students  a  gracefulness  and  gentility  of 
address,  and  prune  off  all  clumsiness  and 
awkwardness  that  is  disagreeable  to  people 
of  fashion,  and  which  gives  learning  the  air 
of  pedantry,  it  would  do  them  a  most  eminent 
service." 

In  another  anonymous  pamphlet  published 
in  1731  the  subject  is  dealt  with  still  more 
broadly  and  thoroughly.  The  writer  sees  that 
Nonconformity  is  suffering,  as  all  religion 
is  suffering,  not  only  from  a  general  decay  of 
earnestness  and  moral  power,  but  also  from 
causes  peculiar  to  itself.  Its  strength  lies 
among  the  trading  sections  of  the  com- 
munity, and  trade  has  been  very  bad,  hence 
a  decline  both  in  numbers  and  in  wealth. 
At  the  same  time  there  is  no  doubt  that 
Nonconformists  are  not  as  keen  about  their 
principles  as  they  were.  This  is  seen  in  their 
lack  of  care   as  to  the  education  of  their 


168  NONCONFORMITY 

children  under  Nonconformist  auspices. 
"  We  thought  it  a  very  unnatural  hardship 
laid  upon  us  by  the  Schism  Act  which  took 
away  from  us  our  privilege  of  educating  our 
children :  and  methinks  we  should  not 
tamely  and  foolishly  do  almost  the  same 
thing  that  Act  aimed  at,  by  voluntarily 
putting  our  children  under  such  sort  of 
tuition.  Though  the  contrivers  of  that  Act 
did  it  to  their  eternal  infamy,  yet  in  this 
they  acted  a  wise  and  consistent  part,  taking 
thereby  the  hkehest  step  to  suppress  our 
interest.  And  shall  we,  who  are  sensible 
of  their  view  in  it,  by  taking  much  the  same 
steps  be  contributing  towards  the  accomplish- 
ment of  it  ?  I  would  not,  therefore,  where 
there  is  any  opportunity  of  avoiding  it,  send 
a  child  to  a  Tory  school  so  much  as  to  learn 
his  A.B.C." 

In  a  similar  pamphlet  Isaac  Watts  deals 
with  the  more  general  aspects  of  the  situation. 
The  decay  of  vital  religion  is  universal,  and 
has  had  its  influence  on  the  Nonconformists 
especially  because  it  is  essential  to  the  main- 
tenance of  their  position  that  they  should 
be  in  earnest.  They  share  in  the  general 
tendency  to  neglect  the  Lord's  Day,  and  are 
too  often  content  with  worshipping  once 
only  thereon.  They  have  declined  from  the 
high  moral  standard  of  their  fathers.  They 
do  not  talk  about  religion  as  readily  as  they 
used  to  do,  and  they  are  much  given  to 
scandal.     Their  life  has  become  less  regular 


REACTION  AND  DECLINE         169 

and  disciplined,  they  are  more  prone  to  the 
pursuit  of  pleasure  and  to  extravagant 
living,  nor  are  they  so  particular  as  they 
should  be  as  to  the  character  of  the  amuse- 
ments in  which  they  take  part.  Add  to 
these  things  a  similar  carelessness  in  theology, 
and  a  lack  of  reverence  for  some  of  the 
fundamentals  of  the  faith,  and  we  have  a 
very  dark  picture  indeed  and  one  curiously 
modern  in  many  of  its  features. 

But  the  story  is  not  altogether  so  black 
as  it  seems.  Many  of  these  pamphlets 
brought  forth  replies,  and  one  of  the  most 
interesting  of  them  is  written  by  Doddridge. 
He  is  especially  insistent  on  the  point  that 
there  is  no  real  falling  off  in  numbers,  decline 
in  one  part  of  the  country  being  more  than 
met  by  advance  in  another.  Speaking  of 
the  Midland  counties,  he  says :  "  I  know  that 
in  many  of  them,  the  number  of  Dissenters  is 
greatly  increased  within  these  twenty  years : 
and  the  interest  continues  so  to  flourish,  that 
I  am  confident  some  of  our  honest  people  who 
converse  only  with  their  own  neighbourhood, 
will  be  surprised  to  hear  of  an  Enquiry 
into  the  causes  of  its  decay."  At  the  same 
time  he  admits  much  that  is  said  as  to  the 
other  signs  of  decay.  There  were  not  want- 
ing, however,  attempts  to  arrest  the  decline. 
We  have  records  of  meetings  both  of  ministers 
and  laymen  held  in  London  and  elsewhere  in 
order  to  concert  measures  for  reviving  the 
thi-eatened  "interest."     Books  and  lectures 


170  NONCONFORMITY 

defending  the  older  theological  positions 
were  published,  and  new  academies  for 
training  ministers  were  founded.  The 
"  Northern  Education  Society  "  was  estab- 
lished, principally  in  order  to  attack  the 
Socinianism  which  was  spreading  among 
the  Northern  Churches.  In  connection  with 
it  appeared  the  Heckmondwike  Academy 
in  Yorkshire,  of  which  there  is  a  modern 
survival  in  the  Heckmondwike  Lecture. 
Attempts  were  made  to  hold  lectures  of 
an  apologetic  kind  in  many  of  the  larger 
churches,  and  to  improve  the  evening  services 
with  the  view  of  attracting  audiences  from 
the  outside. 

As  we  shall  see  later,  the  normal  Noncon- 
formist Churches  and  ministers  looked  with 
great  disfavour  at  first  on  the  revival  under 
Wesley  and  Whitefield  which  broke  out  at 
this  time.  Considering  their  traditions,  this 
is  not  altogether  to  be  wondered  at.  But  it 
does  not  argue  by  any  means  a  complete 
indifference  to  vital  religion  on  their  part. 
Enough  has  been  said  to  show  that  the  very 
opposite  was  the  case.  The  men  of  these 
Churches  were  deeply  concerned  about  the 
low  moral  condition  of  the  age,  and  about 
the  failure  of  the  organised  Churches  to  cope 
with  it.  They  recognised  the  need  for 
some  new  breath  from  God  to  breathe  life 
into  the  dry  bones.  They  were  doing  what 
they  could  to  prepare  the  way  and  to  supply 
the"  needed  conditions  for  the  change.      If 


THE  REVIVAL  171 

when  the  new  life  came,  it  came  in  ways  which 
were  altogether  unexpected  and  unwelcome, 
this  was  but  in  fulfilment  of  the  principle, 
"  The  wind  bloweth  where  it  hsteth."  That 
the  Nonconformists  of  the  day  should  have 
been  slow  to  hear  the  sound  of  it  was  their 
misfortune  as  much  as  their  fault.  The  time 
came  when  they  shared  to  the  full  in  the  new 
life  which  the  revival  brought. 


CHAPTER  X 

THE   REVIVAL 

The  earher  half  of  the  eighteenth  century 
in  England  was  a  period  of  moral  decay  and 
religious  indifference.  Bishop  Butler,  in  the 
preface  to  his  Analogy,  declared  that  "  it 
had  come  to  be  taken  for  granted  that 
Christianity  is  not  so  much  as  a  subject  for 
inquiry  :  but  that  it  is  now  at  length  dis- 
covered to  be  fictitious,"  and  Addison  testified 
that  "  there  was  less  appearance  of  religion 
in  England  than  in  any  neighbouring  state  or 
kingdom."  We  have  seen  hov/  the  Non- 
conformists had  lost  their  first  enthusiasm, 
and  were  at  a  low  ebb.  In  the  Church  of 
England  matters  were  no  better.  There 
were  to  be  found  there  the  practical  material- 
ism  and  hard   rationalism   characteristic   of 


172  NONCONFORMITY 

the  age.  Such  rehgion  as  there  was  had 
become  above  all  things  formal,  decent  and 
dull.  Enthusiasm  was  strongly  deprecated, 
and  religion  as  well  as  the  State  Establish- 
ment were  regarded  both  by  politicians  and 
clergy  as  but  an  excellent  means  of  preserving 
the  obedience  of  the  vulgar  to  the  powers 
that  were.  The  common  clergy  were  worldly 
and  ignorant  and  too  often  dominated  by 
political  considerations  in  their  whole  pre- 
sentation of  their  message.  It  is  true  that 
the  age  possessed  the  virtue  of  toleration  in  a 
larger  measure  than  ever  before,  but  it  was 
the  toleration  of  indifference  rather  than  of  an 
intelligent  charity  or  breadth  of  mind.  The 
neglect  of  religion  had  reacted  on  the  con- 
dition of  the  people.  The  lower  classes  were 
sunk  in  ignorance  and  vice,  and,  in  many 
parts  of  the  country,  lived  an  almost  pagan 
existence.  Drunkenness  was  extremely  pre- 
valent and  almost  unrebuked.  The  life  of 
the  industrial  populations  was  miserable  in 
the  extreme.  Their  pleasures  were  coarse 
and  animal,  and  breaches  of  the  law  were 
punished  with  brutalising  inhumanity. 

It  was  when  the  darkness  was  at  its  deepest 
that  signs  of  the  dawn  began  to  appear. 
The  general  uneasiness  of  the  religious  world 
was  shown  by  the  rise  of  Societies  for  the 
Reformation  of  Manners,  in  which  Churchmen 
and  Dissenters  united  to  mitigate  in  some 
way  the  more  palpable  evils  of  the  town 
life.     But  something  more  radical  than  this 


THE  REVIVAL  173 

was  needed.  Among  the  heralds  of  the  better 
time  was  WilHam  Law,  a  Non-juring  clergy- 
man, who  lived  in  the  first  sixty  years  of  the 
century.  He  published,  among  many  con- 
troversial works,  two  books  which  served  to 
awaken  the  minds  of  men  to  the  need  for  a 
new  life,  and  had  considerable  influence  in 
preparing  John  Wesley  for  his  work.  These 
were  A  ^  Treatise  on  Christian  Perfection  and 
The  Serious  Call  to  a  Devout  Life.  To  the 
latter  both  Dr.  Johnson  and  Gibbon  have 
paid  their  tribute. 

The  first  real  stirrings  of  the  revival  were 
felt  in  Wales.  In  the  PrincipaHty  the  con- 
dition of  religion  and  morals  was  even  worse 
than  in  England.  The  Church  was  practically 
dead  and  had  little  or  no  hold  of  the  people. 
Dissent  too  was  very  weak,  though  there 
were  some  active  Churches  in  the  South. 
The  first  of  the  Welsh  revivaUsts  was  Griffith 
Jones,  an  Established  Church  clergyman  who 
in  many  striking  ways  anticipated  the  work 
of  Whitefield  and  Wesley.  He  was  an  earnest 
and  enthusiastic  preacher,  whole-hearted  in 
his  devotion  to  his  work,  and  altogether 
disinterested.  He  had,  too,  the  same  kind 
of  practical  sagacity  and  organising  power 
as  Wesley.  He  may  be  called  the  first 
of  the  field  preachers,  and  his  work  up  and 
down  the  country  produced  an  abiding 
reUgious  impression.  He  founded  a  system 
of  "  circulating  schools "  which  lasted  for 
more  than  a  generation,  and  did  much  for 


174  NONCONFORMITY 

popular  education  and  the  spread  of  knowledge 
of  the  Bible.  He  was  aided  and  followed 
by  Howell  Harris,  a  half -educated  AngUcan 
layman,  who  devoted  his  Hfe  to  the  rehgious 
instruction  of  his  fellow-countrymen.  Harris 
was  a  bold  and  effective  preacher  who  per- 
severed in  his  work  amid  the  most  relentless 
opposition  and  persecution,  and  by  his  alliance 
with  Whitefield  became  the  founder  of 
Methodism  in  Wales.  Along  with  him  must 
be  mentioned  Daniel  Rowlands,  an  AngHcan 
curate,  who  also  obtained  great  popularity  as 
a  preacher.  It  was  the  withdrawal  of  his  hcence 
by  the  Bishop  of  St.  David's  that  first  led  to 
the  separation  from  the  Church  of  England. 
The  new  Evangehcal  preaching  gradually  de- 
tached the  vast  majority  of  the  population  of 
Wales  from  the  Established  Church,  and  it  has 
remained  so  detached  until  the  present  time. 

The  Evangelical  Revival  in  England  was 
the  result,  in  the  first  instance,  of  the  preaching 
of  Wesley  and  Whitefield.  John  Wesley 
was  the  son  of  that  Samuel  Wesley  who, 
having  once  been  a  Nonconformist,  had 
become  one  of  their  bitterest  opponents.  His 
mother  was  the  daughter  of  Samuel  Annesley, 
one  of  the  ejected  of  1662,  and  a  woman  of 
remarkable  powers  and  strength  of  character. 
Their  famous  son  was  brought  up  under 
strongly  Anglican  influences,  and  was  easily 
subject  to  rehgious  emotionaUsm.  He  made 
himself  notorious  when  at  0  xf  ord  by  the  severity 
of  his  self-imposed  penances,  and  by  founding, 


THE  REVIVAL  175 

along  with  his  brother  Charles,  a  Society  of 
like-minded  men  called  the  Holy  Club.  He 
was  ordained  while  still  at  Oxford,  where  he 
remained  until  the  death  of  his  father  in 
1735.  Up  to  this  time  he  was  merely  an 
unusually  earnest  clergyman  with  strong 
High  Church  proclivities,  an  Arminian 
theology,  and  a  passion  for  personal  holiness. 
The  first  crisis  in  his  life  came  from  association 
with  the  Moravians  with  whom  he  was 
brought  into  contact  on  his  voyage  to  Georgia, 
whither  he  went  w4th  Charles  on  a  mission 
to  convert  the  heathen.  On  his  return  to 
England,  after  a  by  no  means  successful 
mission,  he  made  it  his  business  to  see  more 
of  the  Moravians,  and  learnt  from  them  that 
form  of  justification  by  faith  and  that  view  of 
experimental  religion  which  became  the 
foundation  of  all  his  later  teaching.  It  was  in 
the  year  1738,  as  he  tells  in  his  Journal,  that 
the  light  came  to  himself.  "  In  the  evening 
I  went  very  unwillingly  to  a  Society  in 
Aldersgate  Street  where  one  was  reading 
Luther's  preface  to  the  Epistle  to  the  Romans. 
About  a  quarter  before  nine,  while  he  was 
describing  the  change  which  God  works  in 
the  heart  through  faith  in  Christ,  I  felt  my 
heart  strangely  warmed,  I  felt  I  did  trust  in 
Christ,  Christ  alone,  for  salvation,  and  an 
assurance  was  given  me  that  he  had  taken 
away  my  sins,  even  mine,  and  saved  me  from 
the  law  of  sin  and  death.  I  began  to  pray  with 
all  my  might  for  those  who  had  in  a  more 


176  NONCONFORMITY 

especial  manner  despitefully  used  me  and 
persecuted  me.  I  then  testified  openly  to 
all  what  I  now  first  felt  in  my  heart."  It  is 
generally  admitted  that  the  meeting  thus 
described  marks  an  epoch  in  English  history. 
For  it  is  from  this  time  and  place  that  the 
Methodist  movement  must  be  dated.  Charles 
Wesley  had  already  had  a  somewhat  similar 
experience,  and  for  some  time  Whitefield  had 
been  preaching  the  new  birth  and  justification 
by  faith. 

At  first  the  work  was  carried  on  strictly 
within  the  Established  Church.  Wesley  him- 
self, it  must  be  remembered,  was  always 
an  Anglican  in  spirit,  and  would  never  have 
set  up  a  separate  Church  had  he  not  been 
compelled  to  do  so.  He  formed  societies  on 
the  model  of  the  Moravian  societies,  and  of  the 
Holy  Club  at  Oxford,  consisting  of  men  and 
women  whose  hearts  had  been  touched  and 
who  sought  a  closer  spiritual  communion 
and  experience  than  the  ordinary  services  of 
the  Church  could  give  them.  He  revived  the 
old  Christian  love  feasts,  and  invented  that 
most  potent  engine  of  the  Methodist  system,  the 
class  meeting.  These  formed  a  Church  within 
the  Church,  and,  whatever  may  have  been 
Wesley's  original  intention,  contained  within 
them,  from  the  first,  the  elements  of  dissent. 
The  Methodists  were  the  new  Puritans,  and 
by  the  same  combination  of  forces  that  we 
saw  at  work  in  an  earlier  age  were  driven 
to  become  separatists. 


THE  REVIVAL  177 

But  the  Methodist  leaders  were  nothing  if 
not  missionary.  They  carried  on  an  active 
and  tireless  propaganda  wherever  they  could 
obtain  a  hearing.  The  whole  world  was 
their  parish.  At  first  the  Wesley s  confined 
themselves  to  speaking  in  Anglican  pulpits 
or  in  those  parishes  where  they  could  obtain 
the  goodwill  of  the  incumbent.  But  they 
were  soon  compelled  to  go  farther.  They 
had  a  new  gospel  to  proclaim,  and  they  could 
not  proclaim  it  without  suggesting  that  the 
ordinary  preaching  of  the  Church  was  some- 
thing less  than  Christian.  It  was  no  pleasant 
thing,  therefore,  for  a  clergyman  to  open 
his  pulpit  to  men  who  addressed  his  con- 
gregation as  pagans  and  assumed  that  they 
were  receiving  Christian  teaching  for  the 
first  time.  Then,  again,  the  manner  of  the 
preachers  was  very  different  from  that  to 
which  the  English  Church  was  accustomed. 
Instead  of  the  polished  periods  of  a  read 
sermon,  there  were  to  be  heard  fervid  ex- 
tempore declamations  and  intense  personal 
appeals.  The  congregations,  too,  tended  to 
be  larger  than  the  buildings  could  hold,  and 
decorous  church-goers  were  scandalised  at 
being  crowded  out  of  their  accustomed  seats 
by  a  rabble.  All  this  speedily  produced  a 
great  deal  of  bitter  feeling.  The  churches 
in  many  places  were  closed  against  the 
Methodist  preachers,  and  the  preachers  tended, 
in  spite  of  themselves,  to  create  feeling 
against  the  Church.     Meanwhile^  Whitefield, 


178  NONCONFORMITY 

who  had  never  been  so  scrupulous  as  the 
Wesleys,  had  won  great  success  by  preaching 
in  the  open  air,  especially  among  the  Kings- 
wood  miners  near  Bristol.  It  was  White- 
field,  aided  by  the  circumstances  we  have 
mentioned,  who  reconciled  Wesley  to  "  this 
strange  way  of  preaching  in  the  fields." 
Then  began  that  wonderful  itinerary  which 
lasted  as  long  as  Wesley  lived,  and  changed 
the  face  of  religion  in  England. 

Wesley  himself  was  a  most  remarkable 
man,  and  admirably  fitted  for  the  work  he 
was  called  to  do.  In  personal  appearance 
he  was  "  rather  below  the  middle  size,  but 
beautifully  proportioned,  without  an  ounce 
of  superfluous  flesh,  yet  muscular  and  strong, 
with  a  forehead  clear  and  smooth,  a  bright, 
penetrating  eye,  and  a  lovely  face,  which 
retained  the  freshness  of  its  complexion  to 
the  last  period  of  his  life."  As  Sir  Leslie 
Stephen  says,  he  was  a  human  gamecock  ; 
a  born  fighter,  who  never  knew  when  he  was 
beaten.  At  the  same  time,  he  was  absolutely 
master  of  himself,  and,  though  highly  emo- 
tional, he  never  let  his  emotions  get  beyond 
his  control.  He  spoke  clearly,  quietly  and 
logically,  yet  with  a  passion  and  an  intensity 
that  carried  all  before  it.  He  was  a  keen 
observer,  and  had  a  wide  knowledge  of 
human  nature.  His  courage  was  magnificent, 
and  he  subdued  raging  mobs  by  the  sheer 
force  of  his  eye  and  mind.  With  all  this 
he   was   a   born   leader   and   organiser ;     he 


THE  REVIVAL  179 

could  not  only  kindle  passion,  but  could  do 
that  far  more  difficult  thing — harness  it  for 
effective  service.  Mentally  he  v/as  simply  a 
man  of  his  day.  He  shared  all  the  popular 
superstitions  of  the  time,  and  was  credulous 
to  a  degree.  He  was  quite  unable  to  ap- 
preciate the  value  of  science  and  scientific 
discovery,  and  was  a  little  afraid  of  the 
intellectual  side  of  religion,  as  he  was  also 
of  the  mystical.  His  bent  was  above  all 
things  practical,  and  to  him  Christianity 
was  not  founded  on  argument,  but  on  the 
actual  life  of  God  in  the  soul  of  man  through 
Jesus  Christ.  In  reading  the  Journal,  in 
which  he  has  left  a  detailed  account  of  his 
wanderings  and  work,  one  is  struck  with  the 
saving  common  sense  of  the  man,  with  his 
splendid  vitality  and  tireless  endurance,  and 
with  the  atmosphere  of  faith  in  which  he 
lived,  moved  and  had  his  being. 

Whitefield  was  a  man  of  very  different 
stamp,  though  equally  powerful  in  his  own 
way.  He  was  a  supreme  orator  ;  judged  by 
the  effects  which  he  produced,  perhaps  among 
the  greatest  that  the  world  has  seen.  He 
had  all  the  qualities  of  the  emotional  tempera- 
ment, and  was  without  either  the  logic  or 
the  self-control  that  distinguished  Wesley. 
At  the  same  time,  he  was  a  man  of  broader 
mind  and  wider  sympathies.  As  a  preacher 
he  was  highly  rhetorical  and  impassioned, 
and  appealed  to  the  feelings  rather  than  to 
the   minds   or   consciences   of   his   audience. 


180  NONCONFORMITY 

Yet  he  never  appealed  in  vain.     He  could 
move  his  hearers  in  the  most  extraordinary- 
way,    making    them    weep    with    penitence, 
tremble  with  terror,   and  laugh  aloud  with 
excess  of  joy.     He  seldom  preached  without 
bursting  into  tears  himself,  and  yet  he  kept 
his  hold  over  men  like  Bolingbroke  and  Lord 
Chesterfield.     Much   of   his    power   was    due 
to  the  fact  that  he  was  absolutely  sincere. 
His  passion  for  souls  was  genuine,   and  he 
often   spent   the   greater   part   of   the   night 
in  prayer  for  the  success  of  his  work.     Yet 
his  published  sermons  give  little  or  no  indica- 
tion of  any  special  merit.     Here  and  there 
are  to  be  found  fine  passages  and  apt  illustra- 
tions, but  in  general  they  are  verbose  and 
extravagant,  and  often  seem  more  calculated 
to     excite     ridicule    than    reverence.     They 
show    very    clearly    that     they    must    have 
depended  for  their  effect  on  the  man's  per- 
sonality and  oratorical  skill.     It  is  the  uni- 
versal  testimony   of   his   hearers   that   when 
preaching    Whitefield    seemed    like    a    man 
inspired,  and  that  he  carried  all  before  him 
with  the  rush  and  fervour  of  his  eloquence. 

It  is  impossible  here  to  tell  in  any  detail 
the  story  of  the  labours  of  these  two  men. 
They  travelled  from  end  to  end  of  this 
country  as  well  as  in  Scotland,  Ireland, 
and  Wales.  They  preached  to  tens  of 
thousands  of  people,  in  the  pulpits  of  churches 
where  it  was  allowed,  but  more  often  on 
the   hillside,   in   jails,    or   the   back   streets 


THE  REVIVAL  181 

of  towns.  As  time  went  on  they  were 
bitterly  opposed  by  the  clergy,  who  often 
incited  the  mob  against  them.  Their  followers 
were  treated  with  the  utmost  cruelty,  and 
they  themselves  were  continually  in  peril  of 
their  lives.  But  such  was  their  zeal  for 
the  cause,  and  such  their  pity  for  lost  and 
fallen  men,  that  no  threats  could  deter 
them,  and  no  violence  make  them  afraid. 
They  bore  down  opposition  by  the  sheer 
weight  of  then'  enthusiasm,  and  often  those 
who  came  to  stone  and  to  scoff  remained 
to  pray.  The  most  extraordinary  physical 
and  mental  effects  followed  from  their 
preaching.  It  was  no  uncommon  thing  for 
men  and  women  to  be  seized  with  violent 
convulsions  and  to  fall  down  roaring  and 
foaming  at  the  mouth.  Others  believed 
themselves  to  be  possessed  with  devils,  and 
Wesley,  who  quite  shared  the  belief,  regarded 
himself  as  able  to  cast  the  demons  out. 
Neither  he  nor  Whitefield  sought  in  any  way 
to  check  these  unhealthy  manifestations. 
They  looked  upon  them  as  acceptable  signs 
of  the  working  of  the  Spirit  of  God,  and 
their  preaching  was  often  carefully  calculated 
so  as  to  produce  them.  It  is  not  surprising 
that  such  extravagances  not  infrequently 
led  to  religious  mania  of  a  very  distressing 
kind.  This,  however,  was  no  more  than  a 
by-product  of  the  work.  It  is  a  phenomenon 
common  to  all  religious  revivals,  and  it 
would  be  an  entire  mistake  to  imagine  that 


182  NONCONFORMITY 

it  was  specially  characteristic  of  the  Methodist 
movement.  The  remarkable  thing  about 
Methodism  is  that,  despite  the  atmosphere 
of  emotionalism  in  which  it  was  cradled,  it 
yet  remained  so  entirely  sober  and  produced 
such  lasting  practical  results.  This  was 
altogether  due  to  the  statesmanlike  qualities 
which  Wesley  possessed  in  such  abundance. 
He  was  the  last  man  in  the  world  to  lose 
his  head,  and  he  seized  every  opportunity  as 
it  arose,  and  turned  it  to  account  with 
masterly  skill.  Wherever  he  went  he  left 
behind  him  memorials  in  the  shape  of 
societies,  meeting-houses,  schools  and  chari- 
ties. He  founded  a  vast  organisation  of  lay 
preachers,  which  is  generally  recognised  to  be 
a  model  of  its  kind. 

It  was  on  the  practical  side  of  his  work  that 
Wesley  came  into  definite  collision  with  the 
Established  Church.  He  did  so  altogether 
against  his  will,  and  under  the  stress  of 
circumstances  which  he  could  not  control. 
It  became  necessary  for  him  to  establish 
separate  meeting-places  for  his  societies 
wherever  they  were  excluded  from  the 
parish  church,  and  in  time  he  was  obliged  to 
ordain  his  preachers  so  that  they  might  be 
able  to  administer  the  sacraments.  At  the 
same  time  it  should  be  understood  that  there 
was  never  any  organised  opposition  to  him 
in  the  Anglican  Church.  The  Church  lost 
a  great  opportunity,  as  much  through  in- 
difference as  through  any  other  fault.     Wesley 


THE  REVIVAL  183 

himself  never  willingly  worked  with  the 
Dissenters,  and  never  wished  to  be  reckoned 
among  them,  while  they,  on  their  part, 
generally  left  him  severel}^  alone.  After  his 
death,  his  followers,  very  few  of  whom  had 
ever  felt  with  him  in  this  matter,  found  that 
they  were  Dissenters  whether  they  wished 
it  or  not. 

The  position  of  Whitefield  was  altogether 
different.  He  was  a  Calvinist,  while  Wesley 
was  an  Arminian,  and  he  had  therefore 
some  theological  sympathy  with  Dissenters 
from  the  first.  Then,  too,  his  long  absences 
in  America  tended  to  broaden  his  ecclesiastical 
outlook.  Thus  he  was  often  welcomed  b}^ 
Dissenters  who  kept  aloof  from  Wesley,  and 
in  some  places  their  chapels  were  opened  to 
him  when  he  was  refused  the  use  of  the 
Anglican  church.  He  had  none  of  Wes- 
ley's ecclesiastical  temper,  and  was  altogether 
scornful  of  conventions.  This  made  it  com- 
paratively easy  for  him  to  follow  his  own 
line  and  to  separate  from  the  Church  of  his 
fathers. 

The  contribution  of  Charles  Wesley  to 
the  movement  was  a  very  important  one. 
He  was  a  man  of  much  smaller  calibre  than 
either  his  brother  or  Whitefield.  Though 
he  could  preach  sometimes  with  great 
unction  and  effect,  he  was  very  unequal  in 
the  pulpit,  and  was  himself  precise  and 
narrow  to  a  degree.  But  he  was  not  with- 
out   imagination,    and   he    had   a   real   gift 


184  NONCONFORMITY 

for  writing  hymns.  These  contributed  im- 
mensely to  the  success  and  popularity  of  the 
early  Methodist  meetings.  Though  there  is 
some  sad  doggerel  among  them,  many  of 
them,  like  "  Jesu,  Lover  of  my  soul,"  are 
among  the  classics  of  hymnody. 

The  theological  differences  between  Wesley 
and  Whitefield  were  fundamental,  and  soon 
led  to  divisions  within  the  Methodist  camp. 
There  was  much  controversy,  carried  on  with 
indecent  abusiveness  by  Toplady,  and  with 
philosophical  restraint  by  Fletcher  of 
Madeley.  But  the  two  leaders  never  allowed 
their  differences  to  estrange  them  personally. 
They  still  spoke  of  each  other  with  love  and 
respect,  though  each  went  his  own  way. 
Whitefield  eventually  attached  himself  to 
that  masterful  woman  Selina,  Countess  of 
Huntingdon,  and  through  the  services  held 
in  her  house  made  Methodism  for  a  time 
popular  among  the  elite  of  London  society. 
Herself  a  strong  Calvinist,  Lady  Huntingdon 
recognised,  as  Wesley  did,  that  organisation 
was  necessary  to  the  permanence  of  the 
new  Faith,  and  was  instrumental  in  founding 
two  denominations — the  Calvinistic  Metho- 
dists in  Wales,  with  the  help  of  Howell  Harris, 
and  the  Countess  of  Huntingdon's  Connexion 
in  England.  At  first  both  these  societies 
were  set  up  as  within  the  Church  of  England, 
and  the  Countess  had  no  intention  of  severing 
herself  from  it.  But  she  built  places  of 
worship,  and  a  legal  decision  compelled  her  to 


THE  REVIVAL  185 

register  them  under  the  Toleration  Act,  i.e.  as 
Dissenting  chapels.  "  So,"  she  complained, 
"  I  am  to  be  cast  out  of  the  Church  now,  only 
for  what  I  have  been  doing  these  forty  years — 
speaking  and  living  for  Jesus  Christ."  The 
Countess  also  established  Colleges  for  the 
ministry  at  Trevecca  and  Cheshunt.  The 
Calvinistic  Methodists  of  Wales  are  now  a 
large  and  flourishing  denomination.  The 
Countess  of  Huntingdon's  Connexion  is  small 
and  dwindling,  and  has  practically  been 
absorbed  into  Congregationalism. 

With  regard  to  the  organisation  of  Method- 
ism during  his  hfetime,  Wesley  was  an 
opportunist.  He  took  the  occasion  as  it 
arose  and  did  not  care  to  make  any  clearly 
defined  plans.  This  was  partly  due  to  his 
desire  not  to  make  too  complete  a  breach 
with  Anghcanism,  and  partly  to  his  auto- 
cratic temper,  which  made  him  retain  control 
of  things  in  his  own  hands  as  long  as  possible. 
Even  as  late  as  1790  he  wrote  :  "  The  Church- 
man might  go  to  Church  still,  the  Presby- 
terian, Anabaptist,  Quaker,  might  retain 
their  own  opinions,  and  attend  their  own 
congregations.  The  having  a  real  desire  to 
flee  from  the  wrath  to  come  was  the  only 
condition  required  of  them.  Whoever,  there- 
fore, feared  God  and  worked  righteousness 
was  qualified  for  this  society."  This,  how- 
ever, was  a  counsel  of  perfection.  Many  years 
earher,  in  1744,  Wesley  had  recognised  the 
fact  that  Methodist  Churches  were  in  existence, 


186  NONCONFORMITY 

and  had  invited  his  preachers  to  meet  him  in 
conference.  These  conferences  became  an- 
nual, but  were  at  first  confined  to  spiritupJ 
matters  and  attempted  no  legislation.  That, 
however,  came  later.  The  one  principle 
Avhich  Wesley  laid  down  was  that  of  his  own 
power  to  rule.  He  retained  entirely  in  his 
own  hands  the  "  power  of  admitting  into 
and  excluding  from  the  societies  under  my 
care  :  of  choosing  and  removing  stewards  : 
of  receiving  or  not  receiving  helpers  :  of 
appointing  them  when,  where  and  how  to 
help  me,  and  of  desiring  any  of  them  to  confer 
v/ith  me  when  I  see  good."  "None  needs 
submit  to  it  unless  he  will.  Every  preacher 
and  every  member  may  leave  when  he 
pleases."  There  is  no  doubt  that  Wesley 
never  contemplated  anything  like  self- 
government  in  his  Churches  or  in  the  denom- 
ination. He  seemed  to  expect  that  some 
individual  would  succeed  him,  and  is  said 
to  have  mentioned  Fletcher  of  Madeley  for 
the  post.  In  1784  he  took  legal  steps  to 
perpetuate  the  constitution  of  the  new 
body  in  the  shape  in  which  it  had  grown 
up.  The  Legal  Hundred  vv^as  constituted, 
and  in  it  was  vested  all  authority  in  matters 
of  discipUne  and  administration.  This  be- 
came the  basis  of  Conference,  and  it  is 
noteworthy  that  it  made  Conference  a  purely 
clerical  body.  Wesley  retained  his  ecclesi- 
astical and  sacerdotal  spirit  to  the  last,  as 
witness   a   letter   which   he   wrote   in    1790. 


THE  REVIVAL  187 

"  As  long  as  I  live,  the  people  shall  have  no 
share  in  choosing  either  stewards  or  leaders 
among  the  Methodists.  We  have  not  and 
never  had  any  such  custom.  We  are  no 
republicans  and  never  intend  to  be.  It 
would  be  better  for  those  who  are  so  minded 
to  go  quietly  away." 

It  was  impossible  that  this  position  should 
be  maintained  without  opposition.  Wesley's 
followers  had  none  of  his  reluctance  to  set 
up  Methodist  Churches  or  an  organisation 
outside  the  establishment.  And  while  they 
reverenced  Wesley  himself  and  were  willing 
to  accept  his  persona]  rule,  they  were  not 
anxious  to  transfer  their  allegiance  to  any 
other.  After  his  death  and  before  the 
period  of  mourning  was  over  a  circular  was 
issued  from  a  Conference  held  in  Yorkshire, 
declaring  that  no  successor  to  him  ought  to  be 
appointed,  and  suggesting  an  annual  President. 
This  was  a  declaration  not  only  against 
the  personal  rule  of  one  man,  but  also  against 
the  idea  of  having  bishops  in  Methodism. 
Wesley  had  sanctioned  this  in  America,  and 
was  thought  to  have  favoured  the  idea  for 
England  also.  In  this  there  were  many  of  his 
followers  who  agreed  with  him,  but  the  general 
sense  of  the  preachers  was  against  it,  and, 
after  some  time  and  discussion,  the  suggestions 
of  the  Yorkshire  Conference  were  adopted. 

The  question  of  the  relation  to  the  Estab- 
lishment then  came  up  in  an  acute  form 
over  the  administration  of  the  sacraments. 


188  NONCONFORMITY 

Up  to  the  time  of  his  death  Wesley  insisted 
that  the  sacrament  should  never  be  received 
by  his  followers  except  from  Episcopally 
ordained  hands.  In  certain  cases  he  had 
himself  ordained  preachers,  but,  generally 
speaking,  his  followers  received  the  sacrament 
in  their  parish  churches  or  did  not  receive 
it  at  all.  In  London  they  went  so  far  as  to 
bail  out  a  clergyman  from  the  Fleet  Prison 
for  the  purpose.  Most  of  the  lay  trustees 
and  many  of  the  older  preachers  were 
willing  that  this  state  of  things  should 
continue.  They  were  really  Anglicans  and 
held  the  Anghcan  view  of  the  priesthood.  On 
the  other  hand,  the  great  body  of  Methodists 
had  been  brought  into  the  societies  from  a 
condition  of  indifference  to  all  rehgion,  and 
had  received  nothing  from  the  Anghcan 
Church  but  hatred  and  persecution.  Many 
of  them  also  had  come  to  have  strong  con- 
victions on  the  subject  of  the  priesthood  of 
all  believers.  As  might  be  expected,  such  a 
situation  led  to  long  and  bitter  controversy. 
But  in  the  end  the  will  of  the  majority  pre- 
vailed, and  Conference  permitted  the  sacra- 
ment to  be  administered  in  churches  where  a 
majority  required  it,  subject  always  to  the 
consent  of  Conference.  It  was  thirty  years 
before  the  sacrament  could  be  administered 
in  every  Methodist  chapel  as  a  matter  of 
course.  In  this  way  complete  separation 
from  the  Estabhshed  Church  came .  about, 
but  only  reluctantly  and  by  degrees. 


THE  REVIVAL  189 

The  next  question  in  dispute  was  that 
of  the  representation  of  the  laity  in  Conference. 
Here  the  Conservatives  won  the  day,  and  it 
was  decided  that  Conference  should  consist 
of  preachers  only,  though  certain  powers 
were  delegated  to  local  bodies  of  laymen. 
This,  however,  was  not  enough  for  many  of 
the  more  ardent  spirits  in  Methodism.  The 
time  was  one  in  which  democratic  principles, 
were  coming  very  much  to  the  front,  and  the 
autocratic  and  exclusive  system  which  Wesley 
had  favoured  was  very  galhng  to  some  of 
the  best  men  among  his  successors.  In 
1797  the  first  secession  from  the  general  body 
of  Methodists  took  place  on  the  question 
of  lay  representation,  and  the  Methodist  New 
Connexion  was  formed.  Some  five  thousand 
members  withdrev/,  under  the  leadership 
of  William  Thom  and  Alexander  Kiiham. 
The  new  body  was  organised  on  Presbyterian 
lines  so  as  to  secure  the  independence  of  the 
circuit  and  the  representative  character  of 
the  Conference.  Its  unit  was  the  individual 
Church  meeting  which  had  power  to  sanction 
the  admission  of  members,  to  elect  stewards, 
to  recommend  candidates  for  the  ministry, 
and  to  appoint  representatives  to  the  Leaders' 
Meetings.  The  Leaders'  Meeting  consisted 
of  circuit  ministers,  class  leaders,  officers,  and 
representatives.  The  circuit  Quarterly  Meet- 
ing was  elected  by  it  to  transact  the  business 
of  the  circuit  and  to  appoint  representatives 
to    Conference,    which    was    the    sovereign 


190  NONCONFORMITY 

power  in  the  denomination.  The  Connexion 
grew  steadily  and  doubled  its  membership 
in  the  first  twenty-five  years  of  its  existence. 
At  the  time  of  its  amalgamation  into  the 
United  Methodist  Church  it  had  nearly 
forty  thousand  members  and  some  flourishing 
missions. 

A  further  secession,  that  of  the  Primitive 
Methodists,  took  place  in  the  year  1807. 
For  some  time  previously  to  this  date  Camp 
Meetings  after  the  American  revivalist 
model  had  been  held  at  Mow  Cop,  a  hill  on 
the  border  line  of  Staffordshire  and  Cheshire. 
Under  the  leadership  of  Hugh  Bourne  the 
Camp  Meeting  system  greatly  extended  and 
produced  remarkable  revivals,  which  were 
often  accompanied  by  scenes  of  excitement 
similar  to  those  caused  by  the  early  preaching 
of  Wesley  and  Whitefield.  Conference,  how- 
ever, seemed  to  think  that  the  time  for  such 
things  had  passed  away,  and  resolved  that 
Camp  Meetings  should  not  be  held.  Bourne 
ignored  the  resolution,  and  went  on  with 
his  work,  until  he  was  expelled  from  the 
Society  along  with  certain  others  who  acted 
with  him.  These  men,  with  about  two 
hundred  of  their  followers,  formed  the  Primi- 
tive Methodist  denomination.  They  did  so 
gradually  and  without  any  very  definite  plan. 
Beginning  in  a  single  circuit  they  followed 
the  method  of  village  preaching  and  gradually 
established  societies  of  their  own  converts. 
They  were  full  of  earnestness  and  apostolic 


THE  REVIVAL  191 

passion  for  souls,  and  they  worked  largely 
among  the  poorest  and  most  illiterate  of  the 
population.  Their  first  Conference  was  not 
held  until  1820,  and  their  polity  came  to  be 
based  on  the  District  Meeting  and  District 
Representation.  Stewards  were  appointed  by 
the  District  Leaders,  and  Conference  was  made 
a  representative  body,  containing  two  laymen 
to  every  one  minister.  Primitive  Methodism 
has  done  a  magnificent  work,  especially  in 
the  villages  and  small  towns,  and  to-day  its 
membership  stands  at  over  210,000. 

Very  similar  was  the  origin  of  the  Bible 
Christians  in  Devonshire  and  Cornwall.  Its 
leaders,  F.  W.  Bourne  and  William  O'Bryan, 
were  expelled  from  Methodism  for  irregular 
preaching,  and  started  a  new  denomination 
in  1815.  They  came  to  be  called  Bible 
Christians  from  their  habit  of  carrying  the 
Bible  with  them  openly  in  all  their  preaching 
work.  Though  a  small  denomination,  they 
have  had  a  remarkable  history,  having 
produced  some  striking  religious  personalities 
and  done  a  great  deal  of  missionary  work. 
They,  too,  are  now  absorbed  in  the  United 
Methodist  Church. 

These  various  secessions  produced  no 
change  whatever  in  the  temper  of  the 
Wesleyan  Conference.  Indeed  it  seemed  to 
grow  more  conservative  and  autocratic  as 
time  went  on.  For  many  years  its  policy 
was  largely  shaped  by  the  Rev.  Jabez 
Bunting,   an  able  and  sincere  man,   but   a 


192  NONCONFORMITY 

thorough  ecclesiastical  despot.  About  the 
middle  of  the  nineteenth  century  disputes 
which  had  long  been  carried  on  came  to  a 
head,  and  resulted  in  further  secessions 
of  about  one  hundred  thousand  members  to 
form  the  United  Methodist  Free  Churches. 
It  is  pleasant,  however,  to  record  that  these 
disputes  and  divisions  have  left  little  bitter- 
ness behind  them,  and  that  the  tendency  to- 
day within  Methodism  is  all  in  the  direction 
of  reunion.  Methodism  as  a  whole  has 
grown  by  leaps  and  bounds  all  over  the  world. 
As  we  shall  see  later  on  its  traditional  con- 
servatism is  breaking  down  in  many  direc- 
tions, and  it  is  adapting  itself  with  more 
versatility  than  any  other  Church  to  the 
needs  of  the  populations  in  large  towns  at 
the  present  time.  It  is  still  thoroughly 
Evangelical  in  spirit,  while  using  to  the 
full  the  advantages  which  its  splendid 
organisation  affords.  On  the  whole  the 
dlivisions  have  been  a  gain  rather  than  a  loss. 
They  have  given  to  Methodism  an  elasticity 
and  a  power  of  adaptation  which  it  would 
not  otherwise  have  possessed,  and  they  set 
an  example  of  unity  amid  diversity  which 
other  Churches  are  sure  in  time  to  follow. 

The  Revival  of  the  eighteenth  century  was 
not  confined  to  Methodism.  It  was  strongly 
felt  in  the  Church  of  England  where  it  is 
marked  by  the  rise  of  the  Evangelical  party. 
Towards  the  end  of  his  career  Wesley  quite 
regained    favour   with   Anglicans,    and   was 


THE  REVIVAL  193 

constantly  invited  to  preach  in  their  pulpits. 
He  had  many  sympathisers  at  Cambridge, 
where  the  University  was  more  tolerant 
towards  his  followers  than  was  Oxford.  It 
was  there  that  Rowland  Hill  began  his  work, 
and  although  he  was  obliged  to  remain 
outside  the  Church,  for  no  bishop  would 
ordain  him,  he  made  Cambridge  a  great 
centre  of  Evangelical  teaching,  and  gave 
the  first  impulse  to  the  work  of  Simeon. 
Wesley  was  also  responsible  for  starting 
an  itinerant  movement  within  the  Church 
through  two  clergymen,  Berridge  in  Bedford- 
shire, and  Grimshaw  in  Yorkshire.  These 
were  both  eccentrics,  but  they  had  the  real 
Evangelistic  passion,  and  in  the  extent  of 
their  wanderings  and  power  over  the  common 
people,  proved  themselves  true  disciples  of 
their  master.  Grimshaw  was  vicar  of  the 
parish  of  Haworth  afterwards  made  famous 
by  the  Brontes.  When  he  went  to  it  he  had 
not  a  dozen  communicants,  but  before  his 
work  was  done  they  numbered  more  than 
twelve  hundred.  Other  leading  Evangelicals 
in  the  Church  were  John  Newton  the  friend 
of  Cowper,  Wm.  Romaine,  and  Venn  of 
Huddersfield.  These  men  had  all  the 
defects  which  became  so  conspicuous  in  the 
Evangelical  party  in  later  years.  They 
were  narrow  and  fanatical,  they  had  an 
unreasoning  hatred  of  Romanism,  and,  w^hile 
they  neglected  the  intellectual  side  of  religion 
altogether,  they  yet  subjected  every  one  to 

G 


194  NONCONFORMITY 

rigorous  theological  tests.  But  they  did 
their  appointed  work.  They  made  religion 
real  in  the  Church  of  England,  they  raised 
the  standard  of  clerical  morals,  and  infused 
a  new  fire  both  into  worship  and  preaching. 
At  the  same  time  they  kindled  a  spirit  of 
genuine  philanthropy  and  missionary  zeal. 

The  influence  of  the  revival  on  the  Non- 
conformist Churches  was  more  gradual  and 
less  revolutionary.  With  them  it  was  not  a 
case  of  the  sudden  outbreak  of  new  life  but 
of  a  warming  and  quickening  of  the  life  that 
was  already  there.  Preaching  became  less 
formal  and  more  evangelistic,  and  a  new 
missionary  and  philanthropic  impulse  began 
to  be  felt.  One  can  trace  this  in  men  like 
Watts  and  Doddridge,  but  the  full  force  of 
it  was  not  manifested  until  the  early  years 
of  the  nineteenth  century.  It  was  seen, 
however,  in  the  beginnings  of  the  movement 
for  the  abolition  of  the  slave  trade,  in  the 
prison  reforms  of  John  Howard  and  Elizabeth 
Fry,  in  the  commencement  of  the  Sunday 
School  under  Robert  Raikes,  and  in  the 
foundation  of  the  Baptist  Missionary  Society 
under  Carey,  Marshman  and  Ward.  If 
Evangelicalism  involved  a  certain  set-back 
towards  asceticism,  Sabbatarianism  and  in- 
tolerance, it  has  at  least  this  to  its  credit,  that 
it  gave  rise  to  a  new  and  broader  humani- 
tarianism.  In  this  respect  it  need  have  no 
fear  of  the  test  "  by  their  fruits  ye  shall 
know  them." 


THE  REVIVAL  195 

In  the  latter  half  of  the  eighteenth  century 
we  can  trace  a  slow  but  steady  growth  of 
public  opinion  in  favour  of  religious  liberty 
and  equality.  In  the  Jacobite  rebellion  of 
1745  the  Dissenters  had  made  great  exertions 
on  behalf  of  the  Government,  and  it  was 
recognised  as  an  anomaly  that  an  Act  of 
Indemnity  should  need  to  be  passed  in  order 
to  save  them  from  the  penalties  incurred  by 
taking  up  arms  in  defence  of  the  Govern- 
ment. Public  opinion  was  further  instructed 
by  a  case  brought  against  the  Corporation 
of  London  by  three  Dissenters,  Messrs. 
Sharpe,  Streatfield  and  Evans,  who  had 
been  elected  to  the  office  of  Sheriff  and  then 
fined  because  they  could  not  serve.  It  was 
the  pleasing  habit  of  the  Corporation  to 
nominate  known  Dissenters  for  this  office, 
and  when  they  refused  to  qualify  themselves 
by  taking  the  sacrament  in  the  Church  of 
England,  to  fine  them  roundly.  It  is  reckoned 
that  the  Corporation  obtained  in  this  way 
no  less  a  sum  than  fifteen  thousand  pounds, 
which  it  devoted  to  the  building  of  the  new 
Mansion  House.  The  three  men  above  men- 
tioned, at  the  instigation  of  the  Dissenting 
deputies,  determined  to  resist  the  fine. 
The  matter  was  carried  to  the  House  of 
Lords,  where  it  was  decided  in  their  favour. 
In  giving  judgment  Lord  Mansfield  announced 
that  it  was  now  no  crime  for  a  man  to  be  a 
Dissenter,  or  to  refuse  to  take  the  sacrament 
in  the  Church  of  England. 

G  2^ 


196  NONCONFORMITY 

From  this  victory  dates  the  beginning  of 
a  new  movement  in  the  direction  of  civil 
and  rehgious  Hberty.  At  first  the  leaders 
in  it  were  mainly  Unitarians,  and  to  them, 
and  especially  to  Dr.  Joseph  Priestley,  the 
Nonconformity  of  the  period  owed  a  very 
great  debt.  The  struggle  began  with  an 
attempt  to  widen  the  Toleration  Act  by 
relieving  Nonconformists  from  subscription 
to  the  greater  number  of  the  Thirty-nine 
Articles.  This  was  not  carried  till  1779, 
when  a  declaration  of  adherence  to  Christi- 
anity and  of  behef  in  the  Scriptures  was 
substituted  for  the  Articles.  But  the  dis- 
cussion of  the  subject  did  great  good.  It 
brought  out  the  fundamental  evil  of  sub- 
scription and  crystallised  the  Nonconformist 
position  in  regard  to  the  relation  of  the 
Church  to  the  civil  power.  It  was  in  the 
course  of  one  of  the  debates  in  the  House 
of  Lords  on  this  measure  that  the  Earl  of 
Chatham  made  his  memorable  defence  of 
Nonconformists.  "  The  Dissenting  ministers 
are  represented  as  men  of  close  ambition  : 
they  are  so,  my  Lords  :  and  their  ambition 
is  to  keep  close  to  the  college  of  fishermen 
not  of  cardinals  ;  and  to  the  doctrines  of 
inspired  apostles  not  to  the  decrees  of 
interested  and  aspiring  bishops.  They  con- 
tend for  a  scriptural  and  spiritual  worship  : 
we  have  a  Calvinistic  creed,  a  Popish  liturgy, 
an  Arminian  clergy.  The  Reformation  has 
laid  open  the  Scriptures  to  all  :    let  not  the 


THE  REVIVAL  197 

Bishops  shut  them  again.  Laws  in  support 
of  ecclesiastical  power  are  pleaded  which  it 
would  shock  humanity  to  execute." 

The  next  attack  was  directed  against  the 
Test  and  Corporation  Acts,  and  repeated 
efforts,  in  which  all  sections  of  Nonconformity 
united,  were  made  for  their  repeal.  In  this 
campaign  the  Dissenters  found  a  magnificent 
ally  in  Charles  James  Fox,  whose  speeches 
contain  the  best  possible  refutation  of 
Established  Church  theory.  But  the  cry 
of  the  "  Church  in  danger  "  was  raised,  and 
Pitt  sedulously  fostered  it.  Public  opinion 
was  not  yet  ripe  for  the  change,  and  for  a 
time  the  hope  of  it  was  abandoned.  But 
the  agitation  had  at  least  called  attention 
to  Dissent  and  its  grievances,  and  that  in 
a  way  not  altogether  to  be  desired.  The 
French  Revolution  had  greatly  excited  the 
popular  mind,  and  the  sympathy  with  it 
which  had  been  expressed  by  many  leading 
Nonconformists  caused  them  to  be  regarded 
as  enemies  of  law  and  order.  A  violent  and 
most  unreasoning  agitation  against  Noncon- 
formists broke  out,  and  the  Unitarians  felt 
the  full  fury  of  it.  Dr.  Priestley's  house  in 
Birmingham  was  burnt  to  the  ground,  to 
the  cry  of  "  Church  and  King !  "  and  the 
Tories  everywhere  denounced  Dissenters  as 
Republicans  and  dangerous  to  society.  But, 
once  more.  Nonconformity  gained  by  per- 
secution. There  was  a  strong  revival  of  the 
Free   Church   spirit,    and   it   is   pleasant   to 


198  NONCONFORMITY 

record  that  while  George  III  expressed  his 
approval  of  the  treatment  meted  out  to 
Priestley,  Nonconformists  from  all  over  the 
country  sent  to  him  addresses  of  sympathy. 
From  the  time  of  this  agitation  dates  a  form 
of  persecution  which  has  since  become  very 
common.  While  in  some  places  in  the 
country  Nonconformists  were  obliged  to  arm 
themselves  in  order  to  defend  their  homes 
against  the  mob,  we  read  of  others  in  which 
farmers  and  others  refused  to  employ  those 
who  would  not  attend  the  Established  Church, 
and  of  the  boycotting  of  Nonconformist 
tradesmen.  For  the  moment  it  was  impos- 
sible to  go  any  farther  in  the  direction  of 
seeking  the  removal  of  disabilities,  and 
Nonconformists  could  do  nothing  but  bide 
their  time. 


CHAPTER  XI 

PROGRESS   AND    CONSOLIDATION 

The  condition  of  Nonconformists  at  the 
beginning  of  the  nineteenth  century  was 
such  as  is  very  difficult  to  realise  to-day. 
They  were  still  under  the  ban  of  the  law  ; 
they  were  unable  to  hold  any  public  offices ; 
the  national  Universities  were  closed  to  them  ; 
they  could  not  be  married  in  their  own 
churches  nor  be  buried  save  with  the  rites  of 


PROGRESS  AND  CONSOLIDATION     199 

the   Church   of   England.     They   were   com- 
pelled to  pay  church  rates  for  the  support  of 
the  Establishment,  and,  if  their  worship  was 
tolerated,  it  was   only   in   specially  licensed 
conventicles.     Add  to  these  things  the  fact 
that  reaction  was  in  full  force  and  Dissenters 
everywhere     denounced    as     Jacobites     and 
revolutionaries,   and  that  their  growth  and 
prosperity  were  viewed  by  the  authorities  with 
alarm  and  hatred,  and  we  have  a  condition 
of  things  that  might  well  have  led  them  to 
give  up  their  cause  in  despair.     So  far  from 
this    being    the    case,    however,    they    were 
everywhere  active  and  full  of  zeal.     Indeed, 
it  was  freely  said  that  one  reason  why  efforts 
to    improve   their    position   were    somewhat 
slackened  during  this  period  was  that  they 
were    so   fully    occupied   with   the   work   of 
evangelism     and      philanthropy.      Certainly 
there    was    need    for    it.     The    country    was 
suffering  grievously  from  the  prolonged  war 
with  France ;    there  was  much  poverty  and 
great  unrest.     Public  life  was  tainted  with 
corruption,    and   disinterested   service   either 
of  the  country  or  of  mankind  was  very  far 
to  seek.     Yet  it  was  just  now  that  prison 
reform  was    seriously  taken   in   hand ;    that 
movements  for  popular  education  were   set 
on    foot ;     that    parliamentary    reform    was 
begun ;    that   the    slave   trade  was    declared 
illegal  and  finally  abolished  ;  that  missionary 
societies  were   started,   and  that  the  British 
and  Foreign  Bible   Society  began   its  work. 


200  NONCONFORMITY 

In  all  of  these  events  Nonconformists  had 
their  full  share,  and  very  frequently  they  took 
the  lead.  The  founding  of  the  Bible  Society 
on  an  unsectarian  basis  gave  rise  to  a  dispute 
in  which  the  attitude  of  the  average  Church- 
man towards  Dissent  was  made  abundantly 
clear.  It  was  thought  a  monstrous  and 
scandalous  thing  that  Dissenters  should  be 
admitted  to  any  society  on  an  equality  with 
Churchmen.  Men  feared  that  "  the  pre- 
eminence of  the  Established  religion  would 
be  gradually  forgotten  and  lost,"  and  that 
Dissenters  only  joined  the  new  movement 
in  order  to  "  carry  on  their  evil  designs 
against  Church  and  State."  For  all  that, 
the  Society  flourished  exceedingly,  with  the 
support  of  the  Nonconformists  and  of  the 
more  evangelical  in  the  Church  of  England. 

The  first  and  most  important  task  which  the 
Free  Churches  had  to  face  in  this  period  was 
the  removal  of  disabilities.  For  seventy 
years  they  were  engaged  in  a  life-and-death 
struggle  "^for  freedom.  That  they  won  a 
great  succession  of  triumphs  was  due,  not  so 
much  to  their  own  powers,  and  to  the  ability 
with  which  they  were  led,  as  to  the  inherent 
justice  of  their  cause  and  the  growing  demo- 
cratic feeling  in  the  country.  The  nation 
itself  was  waking  to  a  new  life,  and  the 
Nonconformists  found  themselves  inevitably 
sharing  the  aspirations  of  the  people.  The 
cause  of  freedom  in  religion  was  bound  up 
with  the  liberties  of  the  democracy.     What- 


PROGRESS  AND  CONSOLIDATION    201 

ever  may  be  thought  to  be  the  case  to-day, 
historically,  at  any  rate,  Nonconformity  was 
committed  without  question  to  all  those 
causes  which  are  now  grou.ped  under  the 
name  Liberal.  There  is  no  need  to  apologise 
for  the  fact  that  Dissenters  acted  politically. 
If  they  were  to  remain  true  to  their  principles, 
and  if  they  were  to  advance  the  cause  they 
had  at  heart,  they  could  do  no  other.  Their 
success  may  be  measured  by  the  well-known 
words  of  Lord  John  Russell :  "I  know  the 
Dissenters.  They  gave  us  the  emancipation 
of  the  slave.  They  gave  us  the  Reform  Bill. 
They  gave  us  Free  Trade.  And  they  will  give 
us  the  abolition  of  Church  Rates." 

But  this  is  to  anticipate.  The  first-fruits 
of  victory  was  the  repeal  of  the  Test  and 
Corporation  Acts  in  the  year  1828.  The  work 
of  the  Dissenting  Deputies,  and  of  the  more 
recently  founded  Protestant  Society,  had 
discovered  to  Nonconformists  something  of 
their  strength.  They  were  in  close  alliance 
with  the  Whigs,  and,  being  secure  of  their 
support,  they  began  again  the  agitation  for 
repeal  of  the  Acts.  By  this  time  the  passing 
of  an  Indemnity  Act  was  become  an  annual 
affair,  and,  while  it  somewhat  relieved  the 
Dissenters,  it  showed,  at  the  same  time, 
how  little  danger  there  would  be  either  to  the 
Church  or  to  the  Crown  in  putting  them  on 
an  equality  with  all  other  citizens.  In  spite 
of  this,  there  was  much  opposition,  and  the 
Acts  were  only  repealed  on  condition  that 


202  NONCONFORMITY 

all  magistrates  and  holders  of  municipal  offices 
should  make  a  declaration  that  they  would 
not  use  their  position  "  to  injure  or  weaken 
the  Protestant  Church  as  it  is  by  law  estab- 
lished in  England,  or  to  disturb  the  Bishops 
and  Clergy  in  the  Possession  of  any  Rights 
or  Privileges  to  which  such  Church  or  the 
said  Bishops  and  Clergy  are  or  may  be  by 
Law  entitled." 

The  Nonconformists,  under  the  leadership 
of  John  Bright,  were  conspicuous  among  the 
supporters  of  the  great  Reform  Bill  of  1832. 
Its  passing  largely  increased  their  political 
power,  and  led  many  of  them  to  believe 
that  the  time  was  not  far  distant  when 
complete  religious  equality  would  be  won. 
They  scarcely  realised  how  ingrained  was  the 
conservatism  of  the  British  people.  They 
made  a  good  beginning,  however,  with  an 
attack  on  Church  Rates,  arguing  that  they 
ought  not  to  be  compelled  to  pay  rates  for 
the  maintenance  of  buildings  used  for  religious 
services  at  which  they  were  never  present  and 
to  the  forms  of  which  they  conscientiously 
objected.  It  was  argued  on  the  other  side, 
in  the  words  of  Sir  Erskine  May,  that  "  the 
fabric  of  the  Church  was  national  property — an 
edifice  set  apart  by  law  for  public  worship 
according  to  the  religion  of  the  State — open  to 
all — inviting  all  to  its  services — and  as  much 
the  common  property  of  all  as  a  public 
museum  or  picture  gallery."  The  first  sug- 
gestion made  was  that  an  Exchequer  grant 


PROGRESS  AND  CONSOLIDATION    203 

of  a  quarter  of  a  million  annually  should 
be  voted  to  take  the  place  of  tlie  rate.  But 
this  satisfied  neither  side.  After  several 
other  abortive  proposals,  the  matter  was 
taken  up  by  Mr.  Gladstone  in  1868,  and  a  Bill 
was  passed  simply  abolishing  the  right  of  a 
vestry  to  compel  payment  of  the  rate.  This 
struggle  had  been  continued  for  forty  years, 
and  was  of  immense  value  in  educating  the 
nation  in  the  true  meaning  of  a  Church  Es- 
tablishment, and  in  enforcing  upon  Noncon- 
formists their  own  principles.  In  this  case, 
again,  as  in  that  of  the  Test  Acts,  the  Non- 
conformists won  because  they  had  on  their 
side  the  more  enlightened  public  opinion 
of  the  country. 

Meanwhile  they  had  obtained  a  further 
measure  of  relief  by  securing  a  reform  of  the 
Marriage  Laws,  and  the  provision  of  civil 
registration  of  births,  marriages  and  deaths. 
They  had  also  helped  on  the  good  work  of 
Catholic  emancipation,  in  spite  of  the  fears  of 
some  of  their  leaders.  While  the  Government 
of  the  day  frankly  admitted  that  they  made 
the  concession  to  Catholics  because  they 
feared  that  otherwise  they  would  have 
civil  war  in  Ireland,  the  Nonconformists  as 
frankly  took  up  the  ground  that  religious 
liberty  should  be  granted  to  all.  Daniel 
O' Council,  speaking  at  a  meeting  of  the 
Protestant  Society,  acknowledged  on  behalf 
of  the  people  of  Ireland  the  help  thus  re- 
ceived.    "  I  stand  here,"  he  said,   "  in  the 


204  NONCONFORMITY 

name  of  my  country  to  express  our  gratitude, 
in  feeble  but  in  sincere  language,  for  the 
exertions  made  in  our  behalf  by  our  Protestant 
Dissenting  brethren.  I  have  come  here  to 
express  my  thankfulness  for  the  support 
which  they  have  given  to  the  great  cause  of 
my  country." 

From  early  in  the  nineteenth  century  until 
the  present  day  the  question  of  Education 
has  sharply  divided  Anglicans  and  Noncon- 
formists. The  latter  have  often  been  re- 
proached with  neglecting  education,  but 
the  reproach  comes  badly  from  those  who 
saw  to  it  that  till  about  the  end  of  the  eight- 
eenth century  no  school  could  be  opened 
except  under  the  licence  of  a  bishop.  When 
Nonconformists  once  had  the  opportunity, 
they  lost  no  time  in  making  use  of  it.  It 
was  in  1797  that  Joseph  Lancaster,  a  young 
Quaker,  started  his  schools  for  poor  children, 
and,  in  two  years'  time,  he  had  a  thousand 
pupils  under  instruction.  In  1808  a  Society 
was  formed  to  extend  and  carry  on  these 
schools,  and  it  afterwards  became  the  British 
and  Foreign  Schools  Society.  It  was  managed 
on  the  broadest  religious  principles,  and 
laid  the  foundation  of  that  simple  Bible 
teaching,  or  undenominational  religious  in- 
struction which,  in  practice,  has  proved  so 
easy  and  useful  a  thing,  but  in  theory,  and 
in  the  eyes  of  its  opponents,  is  so  terrible  a 
bugbear.  From  the  first  the  system  was 
bitterly  opposed  in  the  Established  Churchy, 


PROGRESS  AND  CONSOLIDATION    205 

and  Churchmen,  as  they  could  not  suppress 
the  schools,  were  forced  to  rival  them.  As 
a  writer  in  the  Edinburgh  Revieio  said,  "  The 
great  exertions  of  the  Dissenters  stirred  up 
a  corresponding  spirit  in  the  Church."  In 
1811  the  National  School  Society  was 
founded  with  the  express  purpose  of  training 
the  children  of  the  poor  in  the  principles  of 
the  Church  of  England.  The  two  systems, 
sectarian  and  unsectarian,  thus  went  on  side 
by  side.  They  were  both  voluntary  agencies, 
but  the  great  wealth  at  the  disposal  of  the 
Established  Church  enabled  her  to  do  far 
more  for  her  schools  than  the  Nonconformists 
found  possible.  By  neither  party,  however, 
was  the  work  well  done,  and  the  revelations 
of  a  special  Commission  in  1848  persuaded 
even  Nonconformists  that  State  education 
had  become  a  necessity  if  the  work  was  to 
be  adequately  taken  in  hand.  Up  to  that 
time  several  attempts  to  give  State  aid,  in 
some  more  generous  fashion  than  the  pro- 
vision of  building  grants,  had  been  made. 
But  they  had  all  been  on  the  basis  of  giving 
more  public  money  to  the  Church  of  England 
and  of  increasing  clerical  control  over  the 
schools.  They  were  all  defeated  by  the 
Nonconformist  agitation  against  them.  By 
this  time  the  Free  Churches  had  begun  to 
understand  that  it  was  useless  to  attempt 
to  work  for  religious  freedom  and  equaUty, 
while,  all  the  time,  the  control  of  education 
by  one  Church  was  being  perpetuated.     And, 


206  NONCONFORMITY 

quite  apart  from  the  Nonconformists,  there 
were  many  in  the  country  who  entirely 
agreed  with  Lord  John  Russell  when  he  said, 
in  the  year  1843,  "  When  in  1808  a  society 
was  established  the  principle  of  which  was 
that  no  creed  or  liturgy,  estabhshed  by 
human  authority,  should  be  a  part  of  instruc- 
tion in  their  schools — that  the  Bible  alone 
should  be  taught  there  in  connection  with 
religion  —  but  that  the  ministers  of  the 
Church  or  the  different  religious  persuasions 
should  be  at  liberty  to  inculcate  their  own 
peculiar  doctrines  elsewhere  —  when  that 
society  was  established,  he  must  say  he 
thought  it  was  a  misfortune  to  the  country 
that  their  principles  had  not  become  pre- 
dominant." 

It  was  in  1870  that  Mr.  Forster's  Act  set 
up  a  system  of  State  education  by  providing 
for  Board  Schools  under  public  management 
side  by  side  with  existing  voluntary  schools, 
and  giving  them  power,  if  they  wished,  to 
enforce  the  attendance  of  all  children  between 
the  ages  of  five  and  twelve.  The  crux  of 
the  Bill  was  in  the  clauses  deahng  with 
religious  teaching.  As  originally  drafted 
these  gave  absolute  discretion  to  the  local 
authority,  they  might  have  any  religion  or 
no  rehgion  taught.  The  proposal  roused 
the  bitter  hostihty  of  the  Birmingham 
League,  a  powerful  body  of  Nonconformists 
led  by  men  like  Henry  Richard,  Edward 
Miall,   and   R.    W.    Dale.     The   League   put 


PROGRESS  AND  CONSOLIDATION    207 

forward  its  own  programme  of  free,  com- 
pulsory, and  secular  education,  which,  though 
premature,  was  certainly  logical,  and,  so  far 
as  the  first  two  items  of  it  are  concerned, 
has  now  become  the  law  of  the  land.  The 
League  represented  the  feeling  of  most 
Nonconformists  in  objecting  strongly  to  the 
State  support  of  any  kind  of  religious  teach- 
ing. A  compromise  was  arrived  at  in  the 
famous  Cowper-Temple  amendment,  which 
provided  that  no  Catechism  or  other  dis- 
tinctive formulary  should  be  used  in  Board 
schools,  and  that  no  money  from  the  rates 
should  be  given  to  Voluntary  Schools.  At 
the  same  time  it  greatly  increased  the  Par- 
liamentary grant  to  Voluntary  Schools.  Non- 
conformists accepted  this  as  the  minimum 
of  concession,  but  it  is  an  entire  mistake  to 
imagine  that  it  ever  satisfied  them.  Mr. 
Forster's  measure  represented  so  immense 
an  educational  advance  that  they  were  not 
prepared  to  wreck  it.  As  time  went  on  it 
produced  some  unexpected  results.  Board 
schools  multiplied,  and  most  Boards  under- 
took the  business  of  simple  Bible  teaching, 
which  worked  extraordinarily  well  and  became 
popular  both  with  parents  and  teachers. 
Many  Nonconformists  came  to  acquiesce  in 
it  simply  because  it  worked,  but  they  never 
accepted  it  in  principle,  and  it  was  always 
disliked  by  the  more  extreme  Anglicans. 

In   the   year   1880  the  first   point   in  the 
Birmingham    programme    was    carried,    and 


208  NONCONFORMITY 

education  was  made  entirely  compulsory. 
The  second  followed  in  1891,  and  education 
became  free.  In  common  justice  it  ought 
at  the  same  time  to  have  been  made  un- 
sectarian.  This  was  so  far  recognised  among 
Nonconformists  that  large  numbers  of 
their  schools  were  surrendered  to  the  public 
authority.  In  the  Church  of  England, 
however,  the  voluntary  system  had  been 
growing,  fed  as  it  was  by  small  concessions 
from  time  to  time.  These  were  crowned  in 
1902  by  the  Act  which  put  the  Voluntary 
Schools  on  the  rates.  Thousands  of  Non- 
conformists at  once  took  up  a  position  of 
passive  resistance,  and,  whether  they  resist 
or  not,  they  naturally  object  to  being  com- 
pelled to  pay  for  schools  which  are  under  the 
control  of  one  religious  body,  and  in  which 
their  sons  and  daughters  cannot  hope  to  be 
teachers  without  accepting  the  formularies 
of  the  Church  of  England.  They  entirely 
agree  to-day  with  the  position  laid  down  by 
Mr.  Chamberlain  and  Dr.  Dale  in  1870. 
The  former  said,  "  The  payment  of  money 
out  of  the  rates  to  the  denominational  schools 
would  be  an  infringement  of  the  rights  of 
conscience,"  and  the  latter,  "  What  we 
ask  for  is  education,  the  best  education 
possible  and  at  any  cost  for  every  child  in 
England.  But  not  even  at  the  bidding  of  a 
Liberal  Ministry  will  we  consent  to  any 
proposition  which,  under  cover  of  an  edu- 
cational   measure,    empowers    one    religious 


PROGRESS  AND  CONSOLIDATION    2C9 

denomination  to  levy  a  rate  for  teaching  its 
creed  and  maintaining  its  worship."  It  is 
easy  to  sneer  at  this  protracted  squabble 
over  religious  education,  but  to  do  so  argues 
a  very  imperfect  understanding  of  the 
issues.  The  fight  is  one  between  the  forces 
of  progress  and  the  forces  of  reaction.  The 
principles  of  religious  equality  and  religious 
freedom  are  at  stake  in  it,  and  Nonconformists 
would  be  false  to  all  their  traditions  did  they 
not  continue  to  work  for  a  system  of  educa- 
tion which  shall  be,  at  least,  unsectarian,  as 
well  as  compulsory  and  free. 

From  elementary  education  the  Noncon- 
formists next  turned  their  attention  to 
secondary.  It  had  long  been  one  of  their 
most  serious  grievances  that  they  were 
shut  out  from  the  older  Universities.  They 
had  done  great  things  for  the  education  of 
their  ministry  in  providing  academies  and 
colleges,  and  they  had  made  considerable  use 
of  the  facilities  for  higher  education  open  to 
them  in  London  and  Scotland.  But  they 
wanted  more,  and  they  were  now  strong 
enough  to  get  it.  In  spite  of  the  veiled 
opposition  of  Mr.  Gladstone,  there  was 
introduced  in  1871  a  Government  Bill  which 
abolished  all  ecclesiastical  and  theological 
tests  for  professors,  tutors,  fellows,  and 
scholars  at  Oxford  and  Cambridge.  Clerical 
fellowships  were  still  retained,  however,  and 
members  of  the  Theological  Faculty  were 
still  obliged  to  be  clergymen  of  the  Church 


210  NONCONFORMITY 

of  England.  As  Mr.  Herbert  Paul  says,  "  The 
Act  would  have  had  greater  success  if  it 
had  been  bolder  and  more  comprehensive. 
But  such  as  it  was,  it  did  much  more  than 
remove  a  Dissenter's  grievance.  It  made 
Oxford  and  Cambridge  really  representative 
of  the  country,  not  merely  of  the  predominant 
Church.  It  gave  them  the  fresh  intellectual 
air  which  was  the  thing  they  chiefly  needed ; 
it  freed  all  studies,  except  Divinity,  from 
the  cramping  influence  of  a  sectarian  system  ; 
and  it  taught  the  lesson  that  contact  with 
all  forms  of  opinion  is  no  danger  to  honesty 
or  to  faith."  Since  the  removal  of  the 
tests  Nonconformists  have  gone  up  to 
Oxford  and  Cambridge  in  ever-increasing 
numbers,  and  there  are  now  some  five  or  six 
hundred  of  them  at  each  University.  They 
have  also  established  theological  colleges  in 
both  places.  But  the  anomaly  still  remains 
that,  however  eminent  as  teacher  or  scholar 
in  theology  a  Nonconformist  may  be,  he 
cannot  obtain  a  theological  degree,  or  share 
in  the  work  of  the  Theological  Faculty. 
During  the  last  twenty  years  at  Oxford 
Nonconformist  students  have  won  the  Uni- 
versity Theological  prizes  at  the  rate  of 
more  than  two  per  year,  and  yet  these  men 
still  remain  under  the  restrictions  indicated. 
The  founding  of  free  Theological  faculties  in 
London,  Manchester,  and  Wales,  and  their 
entire  success,  has  shown  the  better  way,  and 
it  is  to  be  hoped  that  it  will  not  be  long 


PROGRESS  AND  CONSOLIDATION    211 

before    the    older    Universities    follow    the 
example  thus  set. 

Another  grievance  which  Nonconformists 
had  long  felt  very  keenly  was  removed  by 
the  Burials  Acts  of  1852  and  1880.  Before 
the  former  date  there  were  no  public  burial- 
grounds  except  the  churchyards.  A  few 
chapels  had  small  private  burial-places 
attached  to  them,  and  there  were  a  few 
held  by  private  companies.  But  in  most 
places,  when  Nonconformists  had  to  bury 
their  dead,  it  was  with  the  help  of  the  clergy- 
man and  under  the  rites  of  an  alien  Church. 
In  1852  a  Bill  was  passed  enabling  Corpora- 
tions to  provide  public  burial-places  con- 
taining consecrated  and  unconsecrated 
ground  and  chapels.  Naturally,  however, 
these  were  only  provided  in  populous  dis- 
tricts, and  the  Act  did  nothing  to  remove 
the  trouble  felt  in  the  villages.  In  1880, 
therefore,  it  was  enacted  that  burials  should 
be  permitted  in  parish  churchyards,  either 
without  any  religious  service,  or  with  such 
Christian  and  orderly  service  as  those  in 
charge  of  the  funeral  might  desire.  None 
of  the  evils  predicted  have  followed  from 
this  very  obvious  concession,  and  it  has 
finally  closed  a  most  painful  and  unnecessary 
controversy. 

The  gradual  and  steady  advance  of  the 
Nonconformist  policy  which  these  conces- 
sions represent  could  not  but  weaken  the 
position    of    the    Anglican    Church    as    an 


212  NONCONFORMITY 

Establishment.  A  natural  consequence  of 
this  was  that  Free  Churchmen  were  en- 
couraged to  attack  the  principle  of  the 
Establishment  itself.  As  early  as  1811  the 
Protestant  Society  for  the  Protection  of 
Religious  Liberty  was  founded,  and  it  played 
a  great  part  in  securing  the  repeal  of 
the  Test  and  Corporation  Acts.  It  was 
followed  in  1844  by  the  formation  of  the 
British  Anti-State  Church  Association,  which 
afterwards  became  the  Society  for  the 
Liberation  of  Religion  from  State  Patronage 
and  Control.  For  many  years  the  leading 
spirit  in  this  Society  was  the  Rev.  Edward 
Miall,  who,  as  editor  of  the  Nonconformist 
newspaper,  did  very  much  to  educate  Non- 
conformists in  their  own  principles,  and  to 
inspire  them  to  take  action  in  their  defence. 
Miall  was  an  extremely  effective  writer  and 
speaker,  and  his  incessant  attacks  on  the 
abuses  of  the  Establishment  produced  a 
great  effect  on  the  younger  generation  of 
Nonconformists.  The  older  ministers,  though 
they  were  very  much  alarmed  at  the  time 
by  the  spread  of  the  Tractarian  movement 
within  the  Church,  were  by  no  means  inclined 
to  follow  Miall.  He  was  a  Radical,  and  they 
were  not.  He  was  a  disturber  of  the  peace  of 
Israel,  and  they  preferred  to  let  sleeping 
dogs  lie.  However,  the  future  was  with  the 
man  of  energy  and  convictions,  and  the 
positions  for  which  Miall  contended  were 
gradually    adopted    by    all    thinking    Non- 


PROGRESS  AND  CONSOLIDATION    213 

conformists.  They  came  to  see  that,  so  long 
as  the  State  Church  existed,  there  was  no 
real  security  for  religious  freedom,  and  they 
discovered  how  great  an  anomaly  was  an 
Established  Church  when  it  only  commanded 
the  support  of  a  fraction  of  the  population. 

It  was  the  growth  of  convictions  like  these 
which  prepared  the  way  for  the  Disestablish- 
ment of  the  Irish  Church.  Ireland  then,  as 
now,  was  predominantly  Catholic,  and  it 
was  computed  that  scarcely  an  eighth  of  the 
people  were  connected  with  the  Established 
Church.  When  Mr.  Gladstone  took  the 
question  up  in  1868  he  had  a  staunch  ally 
in  John  Bright,  who  at  that  time  had  as 
much  influence  with  the  Liberal  electorate 
as  the  Prime  Minister  himself.  The  recent 
General  Election  had  shown  the  country  to  be 
fully  ripe  for  the  measure  as  a  first  instalment 
of  that  justice  to  Ireland  that  has  been  so 
long  delayed.  The  Bill  provided  for  severing 
the  connection  between  the  Church  and  the 
State  by  putting  an  end  to  the  jurisdiction  of 
the  ecclesiastical  courts  in  Ireland,  and  by 
taking  away  from  the  Bishops  their  seats  in 
the  House  of  Lords.  It  was  provided  also 
that  the  Queen  in  Council  should  be  em- 
powered to  recognise  any  governing  body  of 
the  Irish  Church  to  which  her  clergy  and 
laity  should  agree,  and  that  such  body  should 
be  incorporated  by  law.  As  to  disendow- 
ment,  the  property  of  the  Church,  so  far 
as  it  was  affected  by  the  Bill,  was  vested  in 


214  NONCONFORMITY 

Commissioners  appointed  by  Parliament. 
Private  endowments  given  or  bequeathed 
since  1 660  were  not  to  be  touched.  The  Church 
fabrics  and  parsonages  were  handed  over 
to  the  governing  body  of  the  DisestabHshed 
Church.  Lay  patrons  were  compensated  by 
receiving  the  full  value  of  their  patronage, 
and  beneficed  clergy  might  continue  to  draw 
their  incomes  for  life,  or  receive  a  sum  in 
commutation.  Curates  of  two  years'  stand- 
ing in  a  parish  were  also  to  be  compensated, 
and  glebes  and  tithe-rent  charges  were  to 
be  vested  in  the  Parliamentary  Commissioners. 
At  the  same  time  the  regium  donum  payments 
to  the  Maynooth  Catholic  College  and  to  the 
Presbyterians  were  to  cease,  and  compensation 
was  to  be  given  from  the  funds  of  the  Dis- 
established Church.  The  surplus  of  this 
property  was  to  be  devoted  to  the  relief 
of  unavoidable  calamity  not  provided  for 
sufficiently  by  the  Poor  Law.  The  Bill  easily 
passed  the  Commons,  but  was  assailed  with 
the  utmost  hostility  in  the  Lords.  It  is  a 
matter  of  history  how  near  it  came  to  creating 
the  gravest  possible  constitutional  crisis. 
Finally  it  was  allowed  to  pass  with  some 
alteration  in  the  financial  details.  It  is 
generally  admitted  that  the  Disestablished 
Church  is  stronger  and  more  prosperous  than 
ever  it  was  as  an  Establishment.  The  Irish 
Church  to-day  is  an  object-lesson  in  the  truth 
of  John  Bright 's  words  :  "  The  past  and  present 
State    alliance    with    reUgion    is    hostile    to 


PROGRESS  AND  CONSOLIDATION    215 

religious  liberty,  preventing  all  growth  and 
nearly  destroying  all  vitality  in  religion 
itseK." 

From  Ireland  we  may  turn  to  Scotland. 
In  that  country  Free  Church  convictions  were 
of  comparatively  late  growth.  In  the  days 
of  the  Stuarts  the  struggle  was  one  between 
Episcopacy  and  Presbytery,  but  the  Cove- 
nanters, who  made  so  magnificent  a  fight 
against  the  imposition  of  an  alien  Church, 
were  State  Churchmen  to  a  man.  When  the 
struggle  was  over  and  Scotland  had  her 
Presbyterian  Church  by  law  established,  all 
the  life  and  fire  seemed  to  die  out  of  it. 
From  the  Revolution  in  1688  onwards  the 
rule  of  the  Moderate  in  the  Scotch  Church 
was  supreme.  And  the  rule  of  the  Moderate 
meant  a  positive  hatred  of  anything  like 
Evangelical  enthusiasm  and  a  fear  of  all 
theological  change,  combined  with  a  deep 
respect  for  the  principle  of  Establishment. 
It  was  a  highly  respectable,  unemotional 
and  very  decorous  type  of  religion  that  then 
prevailed.  In  the  Settlement  of  1688  many 
of  the  Episcopal  incumbents  became  Presby- 
terian in  order  to  retain  their  positions,  and 
these,  and  their  followers,  were  no  source  of 
strength.  But  the  sleep  of  stagnation  did  not 
remain  long  unbroken.  Early  in  the  eighteenth 
century,  John  Glas,  a  Dundee  minister  of 
rare  spirituality  and  devotion,  challenged  the 
Covenanting  position.  He  taught  that  there 
was  no  Scripture  warrant  for  an  Established 


216  NONCONFORMITY 

Church,  that  the  civil  magistrate  had  no 
authority  in  rehgious  matters,  and  that  the 
imposition  of  a  creed  was  not  a  Christian 
thing.  After  a  long  controversy,  in  which 
Glas  was  warmly  supported  by  his  con- 
gregation, he  was  deposed  from  his  ministry 
in  the  Church  of  Scotland,  and  founded  an 
independent  Church  which  was  known  as 
Glasite.  A  similar  awakening  on  the  theo- 
logical side  is  marked  by  the  Sandemanians,  a 
community  founded  by  John  Sandeman,  a 
son-in-law  of  Glas.  More  important,  how- 
ever, than  either  of  these  were  the  Marrow 
men,  so  called  from  the  Marrow  of  Modern 
Divinity,  a  compilation  of  Puritan  Theology 
by  one  Fisher,  a  chaplain  in  Cromwell's 
army.  About  1718  this  was  republished 
in  Scotland  by  Thomas  Boston,  the  author 
of  the  Fourfold  State  and  other  books.  It  at 
once  became  popular  among  ministers,  and 
caused  something  like  an  Evangelical  revival. 
In  consequence  it  was  condemned  by  the 
Assembly,  and  the  ministers  who  accepted 
it  were  "admonished  and  rebuked."  Among 
these  was  Ebenezer  Erskine,  the  son  of  an 
English  ejected  minister,  who  became  the 
leader  of  the  first  secession  from  the  Estab- 
lished Church.  The  cause  of  it  was  the 
question  of  patronage,  and  the  immediate 
occasion  an  enactment  by  the  Assembly  of 
the  Kirk  in  1731  that,  in  case  a  patron  failed 
to  present  to  a  vacant  living,  the  presentation 
should  be  made  by  the  elders  and  heritors 


PROGRESS  AND  CONSOLIDATION    217 

(i.e.  landholders  of  the  district).  Erskine 
protested  against  this  in  the  interests  of  the 
Church  and  "  as  giving  a  wound  to  the 
authority  of  Christ."  The  Assembly  there- 
fore suspended  him.  He  and  three  other 
ministers  then  formed  the  first  Associate 
Presbytery  at  Gairney  Bridge,  near  Kinross, 
in  the  year  1733. 

This  was  the  beginning  of  the  Secession 
Church,  which  for  many  years  exercised  a 
profound  influence  on  the  life  of  the  Scotch 
people.  It  was  a  Voluntary  Church  de- 
pendent on  the  freewill  offerings  of  the 
people,  and  independent  of  any  State  control. 
But  it  was  at  first  Voluntary  in  practice 
rather  than  in  principle.  It  clung  to  the 
Covenants  with  pathetic  insistence,  and  it 
was  not  without  much  discussion  and  after 
long  hesitation  that  the  Covenants  were  first 
freed  from  the  clauses  which  insisted  on  the 
supremacy  of  the  State  in  religious  as  well  as 
in  civil  affairs,  and  afterwards  made  optional 
for  those  who  joined  the  Secession  Churches. 
The  history  of  this  process  is  too  long  and 
intricate  to  recount  here,  but  it  is  a  very 
interesting  example  of  the  gradual  victory 
of  the  Voluntary  principle.  In  the  year  1747 
a  controversy  arose  within  the  Secession 
Church  on  the  lawfulness  of  taking  the  oath 
administered  to  burgesses  in  Edinburgh, 
Glasgow  and  Perth,  in  which  reference  was 
made  to  "  the  true  religion  presently  pro- 
fessed   within    this    realm."     This    was    in- 


218  NONCONFORMITY 

terpreted  by  some  to  mean  the  Established 
Church,  and  by  others  merely  the  Protestant 
faith.  So  arose  the  Burgher  and  Anti-Burgher 
sections  of  the  Secession  Church.  Early  in  the 
nineteenth  century  the  breach  was  healed,  and 
the  United  Secession  Church  formed.  It 
was  from  this  Church  that  James  Morison  was 
expelled  in  1845  for  his  broad  views  on  the 
Atonement,  and  founded  the  Evangelical 
Union  of  Scotland.  Thomas  Carlyle  was 
brought  up  in  the  Secession  Church,  and 
it  is  of  one  of  its  chapels  that  he  wrote : 
"  That  poor  temple  of  my  childhood  is 
more  sacred  to  me  than  the  biggest  Cathedral 
then  extant  could  have  been;  rude,  rustic,  bare, 
no  temple  in  the  world  was  more  so  :  but 
there  were  sacred  lambencies,  tongues  of 
authentic  flame  which  kindled  what  was 
best  in  one,  what  has  not  yet  gone  out." 
Side  by  side  with  the  Seceders  grew  up  the 
Belief  Church,  founded  by  Thomas  Gillespie, 
a  minister  who  was  deposed  for  refusing  to 
take  part  in  the  installation  of  a  pastor 
appointed  against  the  will  of  the  people. 
Gillespie  had  been  trained  by  PhiHp  Dod- 
dridge and  was  of  a  more  Catholic  temper  than 
most  of  the  Covenanting  clergy.  He  gave 
the  name  Belief  to  his  Churches  because 
their  aim  was  relief  from  the  oppression  of 
patronage.  In  1847  his  Churches  united 
with  the  Seceders  and  formed  the  United 
Presbyterian  Church  of  Scotland. 

But  the  question  of  appointing  ministers 


PROGRESS  AND  CONSOLIDATION    219 

by  patronage  had  other  and  more  important 
results  still.  During  the  early  part  of  the 
nineteenth  century  the  Assembly  of  the 
Scotch  Kirk  had  become  somewhat  more 
favourable  to  the  system.  But  in  1834, 
under  the  guidance  of  Dr.  Chalmers,  the 
Assembly  passed  the  Veto  Act,  which  was 
contrived  in  order  to  determine  the  rights 
of  the  people  without  interfering  with  those  of 
the  patrons.  It  provided  that  if  a  majority 
of  male  communicants  who  were  heads  of 
families  objected  to  the  patron's  nomina- 
tion, the  presbytery  might  refuse  to  ordain, 
and  intimate  to  the  patron  that  the  Church 
was  still  vacant.  A  case  of  the  kind  came 
up  at  Auchterarder,  where  the  patron  and 
his  nominee  refused  to  accept  the  Veto  Act, 
and  took  the  matter  into  the  Civil  Courts. 
More  than  once  the  Courts  declared  in  favour 
of  the  patrons  and  against  the  people.  In 
1842  the  Assembly  issued  a  Claim  of  Right, 
remonstrating  against  the  encroachments  of 
the  Civil  Courts,  and  questioning  the  legality 
of  some  of  their  decisions.  At  the  same 
time  efforts  were  made  to  get  Parliament 
to  interfere,  but  without  avail.  In  1843, 
when  the  General  Assembly  met  in  Edin- 
burgh, a  protest  was  laid  on  the  table  before 
the  Queen's  Commissioner,  setting  forth  the 
wrongs  of  the  Church,  and  declaring  the 
intention  of  the  signatories  to  form  a  new 
organisation  as  the  Free  Church  of  Scotland. 
When  the  protest  was  read  a  large  number 


220  NONCONFORMITY 

of  ministers  and  laymen,  led  by  Dr.  Chalmers, 
left  the  Assembly  and  proceeded,  amid  vast 
crowds  in  the  street,  to  another  place  of 
meeting,  where  the  Free  Church  of  Scotland 
was  constituted.  Those  who  took  this  action 
cut  connection  with  the  State  altogether ; 
they  abandoned  churches,  manses,  glebes, 
and  stipends,  because  they  could  not  brook 
State  interference  with  the  Crown  rights 
of  Jesus  Christ.  It  was  a  magnificent  de- 
monstration of  the  Free  Church  principle. 
Four  hundred  and  seventy  out  of  the  twelve 
hundred  ministers  of  the  Kirk  joined  it, 
along  with  all  the  foreign  missionaries  and 
a  great  number  of  laymen  in  all  parts  of 
Scotland.  Many  of  them  suffered  not  a 
little,  but  the  new  Church  grew  apace.  It 
was  splendidly  organised  from  the  first, 
Dr.  Chalmers  being  a  master  hand  at  the 
work.  His  sustentation  fund  for  the  support 
of  the  ministry  was  a  model  of  its  kind,  and 
amply  secured  the  object  aimed  at  from  the 
beginning.  Both  the  Free  Church  and  the 
United  Presbyterian  Church  continued  to 
flourish  side  by  side  until  the  year  1900, 
when  they  determined  to  join  hands,  and 
became  the  United  Free  Church.  The  union 
was  entered  into  with  enthusiasm  by  all  but 
a  small  minority  of  Free  Church  ministers, 
mostly  in  the  Highlands,  who  contended 
that  the  union  violated  the  trusts  under 
which  their  property  was  held.  The  Scotch 
Courts  decided  against  them,  but  when  the 


PROGRESS  AND  CONSOLIDATION    221 

matter  was  taken  to  the  House  of  Lords  the 
decision  was  in  their  favour.  The  Lords 
held  that  the  Free  Church  was  to  be  regarded 
simply  as  a  Trust,  and  that  among  the  articles 
of  association  were  the  Principle  of  Establish- 
ment, which  had  never  been  repudiated,  and 
the  doctrines  of  election  and  predestination 
as  taught  by  the  Confession  of  Faith.  They 
held  that  union  with  the  United  Presbyterian 
Church  violated  these  articles,  because  it 
left  the  relation  of  the  Church  to  the  State 
an  open  question,  and  because  the  Declaratory 
Act  of  the  United  Presbyterian  Church  was 
inconsistent  with  the  Confession  of  Faith. 
The  result  was  that  the  dissentient  ministers 
and  congregations,  less  than  thirty  in  number, 
were  adjudged  to  be  the  true  Free  Church 
(Wee  Frees,  they  were  popularly  called),  and 
all  its  property  was  handed  over  to  them, 
consisting  of  over  a  thousand  churches  and 
manses,  and  other  property  valued  at  ten 
million  pounds.  The  situation  thus  created 
was  an  impossible  one,  and  Parliament  was 
compelled  to  interfere.  The  greater  part  of 
the  property  was  restored  to  the  United 
Free  Church,  and  it  has  rapidly  recovered 
from  this  unexpected  set-back  at  the  beginning 
of  its  career.  At  the  same  time  the  Estab- 
lished Church  has  shown  great  signs  of 
activity,  and  negotiations  are  again  on  foot 
for  the  reunion  of  Presbyterianism  in  Scotland. 
That  this  will  be  brought  about  at  some 
not  very  distant  date  is  practically  certain. 


222  NONCONFORMITY 

but,  whether  by  concessions  to  the  principle 
of  Establishment  on  the  part  of  the  United 
Free  Church,  or  by  the  disestablishment  of 
the  Kirk,  no  one  would  venture  to  predict. 

The  story  of  the  Presbyterian  Church  in 
England  in  modern  times  may  be  very  briefly 
told.  After  the  lapse  into  Unitarianism 
in  the  eighteenth  century  there  were  very 
few  orthodox  Presbyterian  Churches  left. 
Such  as  there  were  were  constantly  rein- 
forced by  additions  from  Scotland,  and  in 
1876  the  Presbyterian  Church  of  England 
was  formally  set  up  with  the  countenance 
and  on  the  model  of  the  United  Presbyterian 
Church.  Though  largely  a  Scotch  Church, 
it  has  attracted  to  itself  many  English 
people,  and  has  grown  to  considerable  influ- 
ence, especially  in  London  and  in  the  large 
towns  in  the  North.  It  has  a  cultured  and 
able  ministry,  a  large  Sustentation  Fund,  and 
an  admirably  equipped  mission  in  China. 
Like  their  namesakes  in  an  earlier  generation, 
many  of  these  modern  Presbyterians  are  not 
Free  Churchmen  in  the  strict  sense  of  the 
term.  They  believe  in  the  principle  of  a 
State  Church,  though  all  their  affinities  are 
with  the  Free  Churches  of  England,  and 
time  will,  no  doubt,  gradually  bring  them 
round  to  the  full  Free  Church  position,  which 
is  quite  compatible  with  a  strong  sense  of 
responsibility  for  the  national  well-being  on 
the  part  of  the  Churches. 

The  Congregational  and  Baptist  *'  interests  " 


PROGRESS  AND  CONSOLIDATION    223 

in  Scotland  ov>^e  much  to  the  work  of  the 
brothers  Robert  and  James  Haldane.  These 
were  young  laymen  who,  under  the  impulse 
partly  of  the  French  Revolution  and  partly 
of  the  Evangelical  revival,  carried  on  a  great 
Evangelistic  mission  in  the  east  and  north 
of  Scotland  from  the  year  1789  onwards. 
They  gathered  great  crowds  to  hear  them, 
and,  in  spite  of  opposition  from  the  Estab- 
lished Church,  their  movement  prospered. 
In  time  James  Haldane  adopted  Baptist 
principles,  and  his  brother  Robert,  with  his 
followers,  founded  the  Scottish  Congregational 
Union.  The  Haldanes,  however,  were  Free 
Church  in  practice  rather  than  in  theory. 
When  Dr.  John  Brown  refused  in  the  year  1833 
to  pay  the  tax  for  the  support  of  the  Estab- 
lished Church  ministers,  Robert  Haldane 
denounced  his  conduct  as  "rebellion  against 
Christ,"  and  w^as  warmly  commended  for 
his  action  by  Dr.  Chalmers.  For  all  that, 
he  and  his  brother  are  practically  responsible 
for  the  foundation  of  the  Congregational 
and  Baptist  Churches  in  Scotland,  Churches 
which  have  maintained  a  good  testimony  to 
the  principles  of  religious  freedom  and  the 
doctrines  of  grace.  The  fact  that  they  have 
played  a  much  smaller  part  in  Scotland 
than  in  England  is  due  to  the  excellence  of 
the  Presbyterian  system.  In  modern  times> 
at  least  the  Presbyterian  Churches  have 
shown  no  little  power  of  adaptation  to  new 
circumstances.      They    have    become    more 


224  NONCONFORMITY 

and  more  Congregational  in  practice  by- 
respecting  the  autonomy  of  the  individual 
Church.  There  has  also  grown  up  a  much 
more  friendly  feeling  between  the  Established 
and  Free  Churches  in  Scotland.  The  Estab- 
lished Church  is  far  more  tolerant  than  it 
once  was,  and  co-operation  between  the  two 
is  frequent  and  cordial.  The  situation  is 
thus  quite  different  from  that  which  obtains 
in  England. 

It  may  be  said  that  by  the  end  of  the 
nineteenth  century  the  principle  of  religious 
liberty  had  won  its  way  into  full  recognition. 
The  Free  Churches  have,  therefore,  become 
less  negative  in  their  attitude,  and  have  been 
able  to  turn  their  attention  to  constructive 
endeavour.  While  this  has  meant  a  certain 
slackening  of  zeal  in  regard  to  Church 
Establishment  and  similar  questions,  it  has 
meant  also  an  increase  in  spiritual  force  and 
social  service.  The  Churches  are  beginning 
to  turn  from  their  rights  to  their  duties. 
While  they  will  not  be  slow  to  assert  the 
former  whenever  the  occasion  requires  it, 
they  are,  for  the  moment,  more  concerned 
to  grapple  with  the  moral  and  spiritual 
problems  with  which  our  modern  civilisation 
confronts  them.  It  is  their  growing  ability 
for  such  a  task  which  makes  their  future  full 
of  hope. 


THE  PRESENT  TIME  225 

CHAPTER  XII 

THE    PRESENT   TIME 

During  the  latter  half  of  the  nineteenth 
century  the  Free  Churches  made  great  and 
rapid  progress.  With  the  removal  of  various 
disabilities  came  a  new  spirit  of  hope  and 
energy.  Chapels  were  erected  all  over  the 
country.  The  little  old  meeting  -  houses 
tucked  away  in  back  streets  gave  place  to 
large  and  commodious  buildings.  Sunday 
Schools  multiplied  and  became  more  efficient. 
The  Missionary  Societies,  founded  at  the 
time  of  the  Evangelical  revival,  greatly 
increased  the  scope  of  their  operations  and 
laid  siege  to  the  whole  of  the  heathen  world. 
The  great  preachers  of  Nonconformity  began 
to  take  the  place  that  their  powers  and 
influence  entitled  them  to.  Men  like  Spurgeon 
and  Dale,  each  in  his  own  way,  left  a  deep 
mark  on  the  history  of  his  time,  and  counted 
for  more  than  many  men  who  bulked  much 
more  largely  in  the  popular  mind.  The 
principles  of  religious  liberty  and  equality,  for 
which  the  Nonconformists  had  fought  so  long 
a  fight,  came  gradually  and  tacitly  to  be 
recognised  as  part  of  the  heritage  of  the 
British  people.  Here  and  there,  no  doubt. 
Nonconformists  will  still  often  be  subject 
to  certain  social  disadvantages,  and  where 
possible   the   opportunity  will   be  taken  to 


226  NONCONFORMITY 

exercise  various  petty  forms  of  persecution. 
But  public  opinion  is  against  anything  of 
the  kind,  and  there  is  every  prospect  that  it 
will  become  more  and  more  rare.  At  the 
same  time  the  attitude  of  Nonconformists 
themselves  has  become  less  negative  and  pug- 
nacious than  it  was.  The  gradual  aban- 
donment of  the  names  Nonconformist  and 
Dissenter,  and  the  substitution  for  them  of 
*'  Free  Church,"  is  significant  of  a  change 
that  is  being  felt  through  the  whole  religious 
life  of  the  country.  It  is  recognised  by  Non- 
conformists that  their  position  cannot  be 
expressed  only  by  negative  terms.  Opposi- 
tion to  the  Established  Church  is  by  no 
means  their  sole  raison  d'etre.  They  stand 
for  certain  positive  principles  of  Church  life 
and  religious  belief,  and  their  object  is  to 
extend  these  rather  than  to  antagoni^3e  any 
other  body  of  Christians.  With  Anglicans 
as  such  they  have  no  quarrel ;  but  they  have 
a  quarrel  with  the  principle  of  the  State 
establishment  of  religion.  They  believe  it  to 
be  contrary  to  the  very  genius  of  Christianity 
that  it  should  require  the  countenance  and 
support  of  the  State,  and  they  believe  that 
the  State  connection  is  a  real  hindrance  to  the 
spiritual  development  of  the  Church.  They 
know  that  this  view  of  the  matter  is  shared 
by  many  Anglicans,  and  they  feel  with  them 
that  in  advocating  disestablishment  they  are 
acting  in  the  highest  interests  both  of  religion 
and  of  the  Church  itself. 


THE  PRESENT  TIME  227 

It  must  be  admitted,  however,  that  the 
relations  between  the  Free  Churches  and  the 
Anglican  Church  have  been  very  greatly 
complicated  by  the  great  success  of  that 
Anglo-Catholic  revival  popularly  known  as 
the  Oxford  Movement.  While  this  has 
given  new  life  and  force  to  the  Church  of 
England,  it  has  tended  to  emphasise  the 
separation  between  that  Church  and  all 
others.  The  sacerdotal  and  sacramentarian 
ideas  on  which  it  is  based,  and  its  insistence 
on  the  necessity  of  the  historic  episcopate, 
have  given  to  the  Church  a  spirit  of  exclusive- 
ness  and  arrogance  which  have  been  most 
unfortunate.  While  there  are  many  High 
Churchmen  who  are  better  than  their  creed, 
and  are  willing  to  fraternise  with  Noncon- 
formists, and  even,  on  occasion,  to  co-operate 
with  them,  there  are  many  others  who  can 
only  count  them  as  "  heathen  men  and 
publicans."  The  organ  of  their  party,  The 
Church  Times,  seldom  speaks  of  Noncon- 
formity without  a  sneer,  and  deliberately 
adopts  the  attitude  that  the  Church  of 
England  is  the  religion  of  England.  It  is  this 
temper  that  is  responsible  for  the  religious 
difficulty  (so  called)  in  the  schools,  and  that 
perpetuates  our  unfortunate  divisions.  As 
long  as  it  exists,  co-operation  with  Anglicans 
can  only  be  occasional  and  sporadic,  and 
anything  like  corporate  reunion  is  a  dream. 
The  Free  Churches  are  always  ready  to  meet 
Anglicans  on  equal  terms,  and  to  work  hand 

H  2 


22^  NONCONFORMITY 

in  hand  with  them  in  any  cause  which  will 
further  the  Kingdom  of  God  On  both  sides, 
however,  there  is  need  for  more  knowledge 
one  of  the  other,  for  more  charity,  and  for  a 
better  mutual  understanding.  These  things 
are  slowly  but  surely  coming  about,  and 
with  time  and  patience,  and  the  gradual 
removal  of  causes  of  dissension,  we  may 
come  to  see  a  better  spirit  predominating,  and 
a  more  real  unity  among  the  various  repre- 
sentatives of  the  Christian  name. 

There  is  no  doubt  that  the  Free  Churches 
have  suffered  from  their  very  freedom. 
While  they  have  been  characterised  by  a 
fine  enterprise  and  by  a  real  adaptability 
to  new  conditions,  they  have  also  tended 
to  develop  too  great  an  individuality.  Their 
liberty  has  sometimes  degenerated  into  licence, 
and  their  independence  into  impatience  of 
all  control.  The  various  denominations  have 
gone  their  way  and  done  their  work  too  often 
without  any  regard  to  others  who  were  work- 
ing in  the  same  field,  and  even  individual 
Churches  have  sought  their  own  prosperity 
and  been  quite  heedless  of  how  their  neigh- 
bours fared.  This  has  been  especially  the 
case  among  the  Congregationalists  and  Bap- 
tists, with  whom  the  autonomy  of  the  local 
Church  is  very  jealously  guarded.  In  these 
denominations  the  difficulty  was  partly  met 
by  the  foundation  of  the  Congregational  and 
Baptist  Unions,  in  both  of  which  the  tendency 
of  later  years  has  been  strongly  in  the  direction 


THE  PRESENT  TIME  229 

of  closer  federation  and  connexionalism. 
Even  the  most  Independent  Churches  found 
that  it  was  necessary  for  them  to  stand 
together  as  one  body,  and  for  the  strong  to 
help  the  weak.  Their  union  has  enabled 
them  to  build  churches  and  found  missions,  to 
raise  the  status  of  the  ministry  and  to  give 
advice  and  help  to  churches  in  poor  or 
sparsely  populated  districts.  At  the  same 
time  it  has  given  them  a  sense  of  corporate 
fellowship  and  a  platform,  which  have 
enabled  them  to  become  conscious  of  their 
strength,  and  to  influence  public  opinion 
in  a  way  that  would  have  been  impossible  to 
them  as  isolated  atoms.  At  the  same  time 
nothing  has  been  done  to  interfere  with  the 
autonomy  of  the  individual  Church  in  spiritual 
things.  It  is  accepted  as  axiomatic  that  the 
government  of  the  Church  shall  be  in  the 
hands  of  those  who  are  members  of  the 
Church  and  not  with  any  outside  authority. 
This  principle  has  gradually  come  to  be 
recognised  in  all  the  Churches.  Among  the 
Presbyterians  and  many  of  the  Methodist 
bodies  the  individual  Church  is  practically  au- 
tonomous in  religious  matters,  and  even  in 
the  Church  of  England  there  is  a  marked 
growth  of  pubHc  opinion  in  favour  of  giving 
to  the  laity  a  much  greater  share  in  the 
management  of  Church  affairs. 

A  great  step  in  the  direction  of  the  closer 
federation  of  the  Free  Churches  was  taken 
in  the   year   1892,  when   the   National  Free 


230  NONCONFORMITY 

Church  Council  was  formed.  This  was  a 
genuine  federation  of  all  the  Evangelical  Free 
Churches.  It  was  brought  about  by  the 
desire  for  closer  intercourse  and  common 
action  which  was  keenly  felt  in  the  larger 
Free  Church  denominations.  Expression  to 
this  had  been  given  at  various  meetings  and 
conferences,  and  under  the  guidance  of 
men  like  Hugh  Price  Hughes  and  Charles 
Berry  it  was  crystallised  into  action.  The 
Association  comprises  Churches  of  every  type, 
and  no  difficulty  has  been  experienced  in 
getting  them  to  stand  together  on  a  common 
platform  and  to  take  united  action  in  defence 
or  furtherance  of  Free  Church  principles. 
One  immediate  effect  of  it  has  been  to 
enable  the  different  Churches  and  their 
leaders  to  know  and  understand  one  another 
better,  and  to  set  on  foot  measures  for  pre- 
venting unnecessary  rivalry  and  overlapping 
among  the  Free  Churches.  The  Council 
has  also  rendered  good  service  in  giving  to 
Free  Churchmen  a  suitable  opportunity  for 
the  defence  and  exposition  of  their  principles, 
and  in  applying  them  to  the  social  and  political 
needs  of  the  time.  Its  strength  in  this 
direction  was  abundantly  demonstrated  by 
the  campaign  undertaken  against  the  re- 
actionary education  policy  of  the  Conservative 
Government  of  1902.  It  enabled  the  Free 
Churches  to  discover  a  solidarity  and  a 
determination  which  stood  them  in  good 
stead.     Though    the    Education    Act    could 


THE  PRESENT  TIME  231 

be  accurately  described  as  the  "  Government's 
triumph  over  the  Nonconformists,"  it  was  a 
dearly  bought  victory,  for  it  was  the  spirit 
of  resistance  which  it  had  brought  forth  in 
the  Nonconformists  which  afterwards  drove 
the  Government  from  office.  The  Free  Church 
Council  is  often  regarded  as  a  merely  political 
institution,  and  in  many  quarters  is  greatly 
blamed  for  its  political  activities.  It  was 
perhaps  unfortunate  tha  t  so  early  in  its  history 
it  should  have  been  driven  into  political 
action  of  a  pronounced  kind.  But  in  this 
it  was  only  following  the  traditional  Non- 
conformist example.  When  political  action 
threatens  religious  liberty  or  the  cause  of 
righteousness  and  truth,  then  Free  Church- 
men will  always  be  compelled  to  assert  them- 
selves. To  them,  citizenship  means  more  than 
any  party  programme.  They  cannot  view 
it  apart  from  the  sanctions  of  their  faith. 
Lord  Palmerston  was  speaking  the  truth 
when  he  said :  "In  the  long  run  EngUsh 
politics  will  follow  the  consciences  of  the 
Dissenters."  The  offence  of  the  Free  Church 
Council  is  that  to  this  despised  Nonconformist 
conscience  it  has  given  an  articulate  voice. 
It  is  a  voice  which  the  forces  of  privilege 
and  reaction  have  every  reason  to  fear. 

Primarily,  however,  the  Free  Church  Council 
exists  for  purposes  which  are  purely  spiritual. 
It  is  an  association  of  Churches  concerned 
chiefly  for  the  objects  for  which  those 
Churches  themselves  exist.     Its  main  work  is 


232  NONCONFORMITY 

the  propagation  of  Evangelical  principles. 
Part  of  its  regular  organisation  is  the  arranging 
for  missions  to  be  carried  ont  systematically 
up  and  down  the  country,  and  at  its  annual 
Conferences  the  main  topics  of  discussion  are 
those  which  bear  on  the  spiritual  life  and 
aims  of  the  Churches.  One  of  its  most 
notable  achievements  has  been  the  preparation  j 
of  the  Evangelical  Free  Church  Catechism, 
a  document  which  has  revealed  a  surprising 
amount  of  agreement  among  the  Free  Churches 
on  the  theological  expression  of  their  faith. 
The  work  of  the  Council  so  far  has  certainly 
done  much  to  help  on  the  cause  of  reunion 
among  the  Churches.  It  has  made  possible 
that  mutual  knowledge  and  respect  which  are 
a  condition  precedent  of  all  attempts  at 
reunion,  and  it  has  provided  the  opportunity 
for  practical  co-operation.  It  is  now  re- 
cognised that  anything  like  uniformity  among 
the  Churches  is  an  impossible  dream,  but 
that  a  unity  of  spirit,  aim  and  service  is  well 
within  the  range  of  practical  politics.  The 
reunion  of  certain  of  the  Methodist  denomi- 
nations, of  the  United  Presbyterian  and  Free 
Churches  in  Scotland,  the  constant  co- 
operation of  Congregational  and  Baptist 
Churches  in  this  country  and  the  schemes 
of  reunion  that  are  being  ventilated  in 
Canada  and  Australia,  all  these  point  in  the 
direction  of  something  even  closer  than  a 
federation  of  the  Free  Evangelical  Churches. 
On  the  mission  field  this  has  already  been  ac- 


THE  PRESENT  TIME  233 

complished.  There,  too,  friendly  co-operation 
with  the  AngUcan  Church  is  more  frequent 
and  more  possible  than  under  existing  con- 
ditions it  can  ever  be  at  home.  The  recent 
Edinburgh  Missionary  Conference  was  a 
striking  demonstration  of  the  fundamental 
unity  of  Christendom,  and  in  the  minds  of 
many  pointed  the  way  to  a  much  closer 
co-operation  in  service  for  the  future.  We 
do  not  overlook  the  obstacles  which  still  have 
to  be  reckoned  with,  but  we  have  to  record 
a  notable  advance  in  the  spirit  which  would 
emphasise  the  agreement  among  the  Churches 
rather  than  their  differences,  and  would 
accept  the  help  and  service  of  all  those  who 
profess  and  call  themselves  Christians. 

The  advance  of  this  spirit  among  Noncon- 
formists is  the  more  hopeful  because  they 
have  now  become  so  large  a  part  of  the 
Christian  forces  in  the  world.  From  the 
most  recent  available  statistics,  those  of  the 
year  1910,  we  can  gather  some  idea  of  their 
strength  in  comparison  with  one  another 
and  with  the  Anglican  Church.  Taking  the 
sixteen  leading  Free  Churches  in  England 
and  Wales,  and  comparing  these  alone  with 
the  Anglican  Church,  we  find  the  following 
results.  In  church  accommodation  the  Free 
Churches  have  8,788,285  sittings,  while  the 
Anglican  Church  has  7,236,423  sittings. 
The  Anglican  Church  has  2,231,753  com- 
municants, and  the  Free  Churches  have 
2,125,275.     The  Free  Churches  have  406,764 


234  NONCONFORMITY 

Sunday-school  teachers,  and  the  Anglican 
Church  has  212,712.  The  Free  Churches 
have  3,393,118  Sunday-school  scholars,  and 
the  Anglican  Church  has  2,494,227.  The 
international  statistics  show,  of  course,  a 
much  greater  disparity  in  the  numbers.  If 
we  take  only  the  four  leading  Free  Church 
denominations — viz.  the  Methodists,  Baptists, 
Presbyterians,  and  Congregationalists — we  find 
that  these  have  between  them  21,862,092 
communicants,  1,316,449  Sunday-school 
teachers,  and  16,225,912  Sunday-school 
scholars.  The  figures  for  the  Church  of 
England  are:  4,022,493  communicants, 262,303 
Sunday-school  teachers,  and  2,932,014  Sunday- 
school  scholars.  These  figures  include  the 
United  Kingdom,  the  British  Colonies,  the 
United  States  of  America,  and  India.  They 
show  at  least  that  while  in  the  British  Isles 
the  Free  Churches  have  raised  themselves 
to  a  position  of  numerical  equality  with 
the  Anglican  Church,  in  the  English-speaking 
world  they  have  far  surpassed  it.  Taking 
them  all  together,  however,  these  figures 
cannot  be  regarded  as  satisfactory.  They 
represent  far  too  small  a  proportion  of  the 
population;  and  if  we  compare  them  with 
those  of  previous  years,  we  find  that  they 
do  not  indicate  a  growth  commensurate 
with  the  growth  of  population,  and  that — at 
present,  at  least — the  Free  Churches  are  doing 
little  more  than  mark  time  and  holding  the 
ground   they   have   won.     We    do   not    find 


THE  PRESENT  TIME  235 

anywhere  a  decided  increase  in  numbers, 
and  in  some  cases  there  is  a  positive  decline. 
It  is  a  familiar  truth  that  history  repeats 
itself,  and  the  history  of  the  Church  is  no 
exception  to  the  rule.  There  also  progress 
is  never  by  a  steady  advance  all  along  the 
line,  but  by  action  and  reaction,  by  ebb  and 
flow.  It  would  certainly  seem  that  we  have 
now  reached  a  period  of  religious  reaction, 
of  an  ebb-tide  in  spiritual  things.  It  does 
not  need  any  show  of  statistics,  any  counting 
of  heads,  to  prove  to  us  that  the  great  mass 
of  the  people  of  this  country  are  profoundly 
indifferent  to  all  the  Churches  and  to  religion 
as  represented  by  them.  The  advance  in 
scientific  discovery  and  in  temporal  well- 
being  has  brought  about  a  spirit  of  practical 
materialism  which  tends  to  make  religion 
both  unnecessary  and  unreal.  It  is  quite 
true,  as  every  careful  observer  must  realise, 
that  this  is  only  part  of  a  general  decadence 
that  marks  our  modern  civilisation.  It  is 
by  no  means  confined  to  this  country,  nor 
does  it  affect  only  the  Free  Churches.  These, 
however,  from  their  very  nature,  are  the 
more  likely  to  suffer  from  it.  They  cannot 
live  save  in  an  atmosphere  of  reality.  The 
unrest  which  is  so  marked  a  feature  of 
religious  life  at  the  present  day  is  due  largely 
to  the  efforts  which  the  Churches  are  making 
to  readjust  themselves  to  the  new  circum- 
stances and  conditions.  They  are  showing 
that   they   have  that   adaptability   to   fresh 


236  NONCONFORMITY 

surroundings  that  is  the  surest  sign  of  life, 
and  the  situation  must  be  judged  accordingly. 
On  the  intellectual  side  profound  and  far- 
reaching  changes  have  already  taken  place 
in  the  attitude  of  the  Free  Churches.  They 
have  been  helped  here  by  their  freedom 
from  bondage  to  any  fixed  formularies ; 
but  they  have  never  been  altogether  free. 
There  is  a  bondage  of  tradition  which  can 
be  as  hard  as  that  of  the  letter,  and  the 
process  of  emancipation  has  been  marked 
by  some  severe  and  protracted  struggles. 
In  most  of  the  Free  Churches  at  the  beginning 
of  last  century  the  Calvinistic  tradition  was 
predominant.  In  all  of  them  the  source  of 
authority  was  the  Bible,  regarded  as  literally 
and  verbally  inspired.  But  the  new  wine 
of  modern  thinking  was  too  strong  for  these 
old  bottles.  The  immense  advance  in  natural 
science,  with  its  reinterpretation  of  the 
history  of  the  Universe  and  of  the  nature 
of  man,  and  the  application  of  the  historical 
and  critical  method  to  the  Christian  sources, 
made  some  theological  reconstruction  absol- 
utely necessary,  if  Christianity  was  any 
longer  to  appeal  to  the  more  thoughtful 
section  of  the  community.  Among  the 
growing  pains  of  this  advance  have  been  the 
Rivulet  controversy,  the  Davidson  case,  the 
Leicester  conference,  and  later  the  New 
Theology  omong  Congregationalists,  the 
down-grade  controversy  initiated  by  Mr. 
Spurgeon     among    the     Baptists,     and     the 


THE  PRESENT  TIME  237 

Robertson  Smith  case  in  Scotland.  Of 
similar  import,  and  much  more  widely  known, 
were  the  Colenso  case,  and  the  publication 
of  Essays  and  Reviews  in  the  Church  of 
England.  The  net  result  of  these  contro- 
versies has  been  a  gradual  transference  of 
emphasis  from  the  doctrinal  to  the  experi- 
mental in  religion.  The  process  is  by  no 
means  complete.  Among  many  sections  of 
the  Free  Churches  and  among  Evangelicals 
in  the  Church  of  England  there  is  an  entire 
absence  of  theological  interest  and  enlighten- 
ment. Men  still  cling  pathetically  to  the 
old  formularies,  and  regard  every  suggestion 
to  alter  them  as  a  profanation  of  the  ark 
of  God.  Even  among  the  larger  Free  Churches 
there  is  not  a  little  intolerance  and  a  deter- 
mination on  the  part  of  some  to  make  all 
others  accept  the  theological  position  with 
which  they  agree  on  pain  of  being  branded 
as  heretics.  On  the  other  hand,  there  is  in 
most  of  the  Churches  a  theological  left  wing 
that  seems  to  love  what  is  new  and  strange 
for  its  own  sake,  and  takes  an  almost  mis- 
chievous delight  in  stating  it  to  others  in 
the  most  extravagant  forms  possible.  But 
midway  between  these  two  extremes  stands 
the  great  bulk  of  Nonconformist  opinion, 
that  is  neither  reactionary  on  the  one  hand, 
nor  given  to  extravagant  novelties  on  the 
other.  Free  Churchmen  generally  regard  it 
as  essential  that  they  should  maintain  liberty 
in  all    things  and  the  charity  that  thinketh 


238  NONCONFORMITY 

no  evil.  While  they  are  thoroughly  evan- 
gelical in  spirit,  they  do  not  confound  their 
gospel  with  their  theology,  and  fully  recognise 
the  necessity  for  reconstruction  in  the  intel- 
lectual presentation  of  the  truth.  They 
cannot  bind  themselves  to  the  letter  of  any 
ancient  creed,  and  if  they  accept  any  for- 
mulary at  all,  it  is  in  a  declaratory  rather 
than  in  an  authoritative  sense.  They  believe 
in  the  test,  "  by  their  fruits  ye  shall  know 
them,"  and  they  view  with  sympathy  every 
type  of  Christianity  that  makes  itself  felt 
in  changed  lives  and  in  the  service  of  man- 
kind. They  respect  each  other's  right  to 
think  and  speak  as  conscience  bids ;  and 
while  they  are  ready  to  criticise  those  who 
differ  from  them,  and  to  show  them  the  better 
way,  they  will  condemn  no  man  hastily  or 
unheard.  They  realise  that  Christianity  is 
a  life,  and  they  are  concerned  to  let  it  have 
free  course  and  find  its  expression  in  varying 
forms.  They  believe  profoundly  in  the  work 
of  the  Holy  Spirit,  which  means  to  them 
that  God  has  not  exhausted  Himself  in  any 
of  the  ancient  forms  of  revelation,  but  that 
He  is  still  speaking  in  these  days  to  all  who 
have  ears  to  hear. 

The  dangers  and  difficulties  of  a  position 
like  this  lie  on  the  surface.  To  maintain 
it  in  any  sound  and  reasonable  way  requires 
real  faith,  and  is  something  almost  beyond 
the  capacity  of  the  average  man.  Sight  is 
so  much  simpler  and  easier  than  faith.     To 


THE  PRESENT  TIME  239 

accept  a  verbal  statement  of  a  creed  and 
swear  to  it  on  all  occasions,  or  to  commit 
oneself  to  an  authoritative  Church  and  let 
the  Church  do  the  thinking  while  her  sons 
passively  accept  her  conclusions,  is  for  most 
people  the  line  of  least  resistance.  On  the 
other  hand,  to  keep  an  open  mind  is  a  difficult 
and  uncomfortable  thing,  especially  as  it  is 
not  always  easy  to  see  where  it  will  lead. 
It  is  no  wonder  that  many  observers  attribute 
the  stagnation  of  the  Free  Churches  at  the 
present  time  to  theological  unrest  and  sigh 
for  the  safer  dogmatism  of  a  former  age. 
Such  an  attitude  is  neither  brave  nor  sane. 
It  is  impossible  to  put  back  the  hands  of 
the  clock,  and  the  Churches  must  be  able 
to  speak  to  the  men  of  to-day  in  language 
which  they  can  understand,  and  in  the  terms 
of  the  current  intellectual  life,  or  they  will 
cease  to  appeal  at  all.  The  Free  Churches, 
being  less  trammelled  by  credal  formulas, 
have  here  a  very  great  opportunity,  and 
many  of  them  are  using  it  not  unworthily. 
The  unrest  of  which  so  much  is  heard  will 
not  trouble  us  very  long.  Indeed,  it  is 
already  giving  way  to  a  larger  and  saner 
faith  which  is  based  on  experience  and 
grounded  in  fact. 

But  it  is  not  only  among  the  more  intel- 
ligent middle-class  people,  where  their  chief 
strength  has  always  been,  that  the  Free 
Churches  seem  to  be  losing  hold.  A  far 
more  serious  sign  of  the  ti-rofts  is  their  lack 


240  NONCONFORMITY 

of  progress  among  the  labouring  ana  artisan 
classes.  It  is  easy  to  exaggerate  the  extent 
of  this,  and  it  is  only  right  to  remember 
that  in  many  districts  Methodism  has  a 
large  hold  among  working  folk,  and  that 
the  Brotherhood  and  Adult  School  move- 
ments are  almost  exclusively  recruited  from 
the  working  classes.  But  when  every  allow- 
ance has  been  made  in  this  way,  it  still 
remains  true  that  the  great  masses  of  the 
wage  -  earning  population  are  altogether 
alienated  from  the  Churches,  whether  Non- 
conformist or  Anglican.  The  reasons  for 
this  are  predominantly  social.  In  the  large 
towns  working  men  realise  that  the  Churches 
belong  rather  to  the  order  of  the  employers 
than  of  the  employed.  They  are  democratic 
only  in  name,  and  both  their  government 
and  finance  are  so  arranged  as  to  suit  the 
haves  rather  than  the  have-nots.  In  other 
respects  the  complaint  is  made  that  the 
Churches  are  too  comfortable  and  too  re- 
spectable, and  people  who  are  neither  of 
these  things  do  not  find  in  them  what  they 
need.  The  salvation  which  they  preach  is 
said  to  make  too  little  allowance  for  a  man's 
bodily  needs  and  material  surroundings. 
In  the  present  state  of  the  industrial  world, 
a  gospel  which  only  takes  account  of  things 
spiritual  does  not  easily  commend  itself  to 
those  who  are  bearing  the  heat  and  burden 
of  the  day.  Now,  exaggerated  as  these 
contentions  often  are,  there  is  much  truth 


THE  PRESENT  TIME  241 

in  them.  They  at  least  supply  quite  sufficient 
ground  for  the  attitude  of  indifference  to 
religion  which  is  normal  among  working 
men.  It  must  not,  however,  be  supposed 
that  the  Free  Churches  are  not  alive  to  the 
facts  and  deeply  concerned  to  find  a  remedy 
for  the  existing  condition  of  things.  Indeed, 
nothing  is  more  remarkable  about  their 
recent  history  than  the  extent  to  which  the 
social  implications  of  Christianity  are  being 
studied  and  emphasised.  There  is  no  doubt 
that  a  new  conscience  on  this  subject  is 
making  itself  felt,  and  that  it  will  yet  produce 
great  results.  Without  making  any  con- 
cessions to  doctrinaire  socialism,  the  Free 
Chm'ches  are  steadily  using  their  influence 
to  improve  the  conditions  of  life  and  labour 
among  the  less  favoured  members  of  the 
community.  The  Settlements  connected  with 
the  Congregational  Churches,  the  Central 
Missions  of  the  Wesleyan  Methodists,  and 
the  magnificent  social  service  department 
of  the  Salvation  Army  are  not  merely 
agencies  for  relieving  need  of  various  kinds  : 
they  are  social  experiments,  and  through 
them  quite  as  much  is  learned  as  is  taught. 
It  may  be  claimed  for  the  Free  Churches 
also  that  they  have  had  not  a  little  to  do 
with  rousing  the  new  social  passion  which  is 
making  itself  felt  in  present-day  politics. 

At  the  same  time  the  Free  Churches  are 
becoming  more  conscious  of  the  world-wide 
scope  of  their  mission.     The  claims  of  the 


242  NONCONFORMITY 

Foreign  Field  are  being  felt  by  the  more 
educated  among  the  younger  Nonconformists 
as  never  before.  While  it  is  true  that  the 
work  of  Foreign  Missions  is  not  supported  as 
widely  or  as  adequately  as  it  should  be,  it 
is  being  carried  on  in  a  more  thorough  and 
statesmanlike  fashion  than  was  once  the  case. 
It  may  be  well,  now,  to  conclude  this  brief 
and  rapid  survey  by  attempting  a  rough 
characterisation  of  the  leading  Free  Churches. 
The  Presbyterians  represent  a  kind  of  aris- 
tocracy among  the  Free  Churches.  Thej^  are 
predominantly  Scotch  in  character  and  they 
appeal  to  the  more  hard-headed  and  thought- 
ful of  the  community.  Their  ministers  are 
the  best  trained  and  the  best  equipped  of  all 
the  Free  Churches,  an  average  of  seven  years' 
preparation  being  required  of  them.  They 
are  supreme  in  Scotland  and  in  the  North 
of  Ireland,  and  in  England  they  have  a 
considerable  hold  in  many  of  the  large  towns. 
They  have  a  total  membership  throughout 
the  world  of  5,336,524.  Their  work,  however, 
is  almost  entirely  confined  to  the  more 
respectable  of  the  middle  class.  Among 
these  they  are  spreading,  and  their  decorous 
and  orderly  worship  and  paternal  method 
of  Church  government  serve  to  commend 
them  in  suburban  and  well-to-do  quarters. 
They  have  made  very  notable  contributions 
to  Christian  scholarship,  and  their  leaders  are 
men  of  whom  any  Church  might  well  be  proud. 
The   recent    formation    of   the   United    Free 


THE  PRESENT  TIME  243 

Church,  and  the  troubles  to  which  it  led,  have 
helped  to  consolidate  Presbyterianism,  and 
the  future  is  full  of  promise.  There  is  very 
little  doubt  that  belief  in  the  voluntary 
principle  is  growing,  and  there  are  more 
improbable  things  than  that  Disestablish- 
ment in  Scotland  may  come  about  by  mutual 
consent.  As  it  is,  the  two  Churches,  Free 
and  Established,  work  together  with  great 
harmony,  and  whenever  they  become  one 
Presbyterianism  will  be  in  a  very  strong 
position  indeed. 

It  is  difficult  to  speak  of  Methodism  as  a 
whole  and  in  general  terms,  yet  there  is  a 
very  real  sense  in  which  the  Methodist  Churches 
are  one  amid  and  in  spite  of  their  differences. 
They  have  their  peculiar  genius  and  they 
stand  for  a  type.  In  England,  and  indeed 
throughout  the  world,  they  are  among  the 
most  progressive  of  the  Churches.  It  is 
often  said  that  the  older  Wesleyans  represent 
a  conservative  and  respectable  temper  as 
against  the  more  democratic  Primitives  and 
United  Free  Methodists.  And  yet  it  is 
among  the  Wesleyan  Methodists  that  the 
great  popular  missions  in  London,  Manchester, 
Birmingham,  and  other  centres  have  been 
established  with  such  extraordinary  success. 
Theologically,  Methodism  is  thoroughly 
Evangelical  and  is  not  greatly  enamoured 
of  the  modern  spirit.  It  produces  good  all- 
round  ministers  rather  than  great  preachers, 
and  is  especially  successful  in  commanding  the 


244  NONCONFORMITY 

services  of  large  numbers  of  laymen.  The 
itinerant  system,  in  spite  of  many  obvious 
drawbacks,  has  the  effect  of  strengthening 
the  weaker  Churches  and  of  maintaining 
a  general  level  of  power  throughout  the 
denomination  as  a  whole.  Whether  at  home 
or  abroad  Methodists  are  evangelistic  in 
spirit,  and  through  their  world's  OEcumenical 
Council  are  conscious  of  their  world-wide 
mission.  They  are  by  far  the  largest  factor 
in  the  religious  life  of  Protestantism,  having 
some  8,865,000  communicants.  The  sectarian 
divisions  within  Methodism  are  not  very  im- 
portant. They  show  how  the  same  spirit  can 
work  under  different  forms  and  adapt  itself 
to  different  circumstances.  Of  the  minor 
bodies  the  Primitive  Methodists  are  the  most 
active  and  progressive.  They  have  a  great 
hold  of  the  working  classes  in  many  parts  of 
the  country,  and  through  the  higher  education 
of  their  ministry  are  keeping  themselves 
abreast  of  the  times. 

The  Congregationalists,  again,  are  very 
difficult  to  characterise.  It  is  generally  said 
of  them  that  they  appeal  to  the  more  educated 
middle-class  people  and  represent  a  kind  of 
intellectualism  among  the  Free  Churches. 
At  the  same  time  they  are  missionary  in 
spirit  and  through  Institutional  Churches 
and  various  kinds  of  settlements  give  them- 
selves heartily  to  work  among  the  poor.  They 
also  have  large  numbers  of  Chiu*ches  in  the 
country  districts  through  which  they  keep 


THE  PRESENT  TIME  245 

in  close  touch  with  the  labouring  classes. 
They  retain  much  of  the  independence  and 
love  of  liberty  which  characterised  their 
forefathers  and  have  always  been  in  the 
front  ranks  of  the  fight  for  religious  equality. 
Latterly,  however,  they  have  come  to  see 
the  need  for  a  closer  federation  among  their 
Churches.  The  formation  of  the  County 
Unions  and  the  provision  of  funds  in  aid  both 
of  Churches  and  ministers  have  led  to  a 
much  closer  organisation  and  have  destroyed 
the  individualism  of  the  old  independence. 
At  the  same  time  Congregationalism  also 
has  become  conscious  of  its  world-wide 
mission  largely  through  the  international 
councils  held  from  time  to  time  in  different 
parts  of  the  world.  They  have  now 
1,444,699  communicants.  This  tendency  to- 
wards connexionalism  does  not  mean  any 
abandonment  of  their  original  principles. 
They  still  stand  for  the  position  that  the 
members  of  a  Christian  Church  should  be 
Christians,  and  that  the  sole  head  of  the 
Church  is  Jesus  Christ.  In  things  theological 
they  allow  a  wide  latitude  of  opinion,  and  their 
general  position  is  broadly  Evangelical. 
They  lay  more  stress  on  life  than  on  organisa- 
tion or  creed,  and  though  they  suffer  from 
the  dangers  of  this  liberty  their  witness  in 
history  and  in  the  religious  life  of  to-day 
fully  justifies  their  attitude. 

Much  the  same  may  be  said  of  the  Baptists 
who  reckon  as  Congregationalists  in  ecclesi- 


246  NONCONFORMITY 

astical  polity.  Their  appeal,  however,  hag 
always  been  more  popular  than  that  of  the 
Congregationalists  proper,  and  they  have 
reached  a  membership  of  6,195,817.  They 
do  excellent  work  among  the  lower  middle 
and  working-class  populations,  and  they  are 
Evangelical  to  the  core.  They  tend  to  a 
rather  stiff  form  of  orthodoxy,  but  there  are 
many  signs  which  show  that  they  are  feeling 
their  way  to  a  broader  position.  They  have 
always  been  among  the  staunchest  and  most 
active  of  Nonconformists,  and  this  country 
owes  them  a  very  real  debt  for  the  vigour 
of  their  political  witness.  Like  the  Con- 
gregationalists they  have  been  doing  much 
in  recent  years  to  draw  their  Churches  nearer 
together,  to  make  it  more  possible  for  the 
strong  to  help  the  weak,  to  raise  the  status 
of  their  ministry,  and  to  give  to  their  dis- 
tinctive witness  a  more  articulate  voice. 
In  their  root -principle  of  baptism  only  on 
conversion  they  have  what  gives  to  their 
mission  a  certain  definiteness  and  strength. 
But  it  ought  not  to  divide  them  from  the 
other  Congregational  Churches  as  it  does. 
There  is  no  doubt  that  the  two  denominations 
are  drawing  much  nearer  together,  and  it  is 
to  be  hoped  that  the  time  is  not  far  distant 
when  they  will  become  one. 

Among  the  other  denominations  the 
Salvation  Army  has  earned  a  splendid  pre- 
eminence for  its  work  among  the  lowest 
and    most    degraded    of    civilised    mankind, 


THE  PRESENT  TIME  247 

and     for     its     wide -reaching    philanthropic 
efforts.     There   can  be  Httle   doubt  that  its 
mihtary    disciphne    and    rough    and    ready 
EvangeUsm,  however  distasteful  to  the  more 
cultured,   do   find   a   response    among   those 
whom  seemlier  and  more  orthodox  methods 
fail  to  reach.     The   Quakers  remain  a  kind 
of  spiritual  elect,  chnging  as  they  do  to  the 
doctrine    of    the    inner    Hght.     They    have 
an  influence  out  of  all  proportion  to  their 
numbers.     Their    unwavering    testimony    in 
the  cause  of  peace  and  their  bold  experiments 
in  social  service  have  put  all  the  Churches 
in   their   debt.     There   are   signs,   too,    of   a 
revival  among  them,  led   by  their   younger 
members.     Tiiese    are    adapting    themselves 
to  modern  conditions  and  preparing  the  way 
for  a  yet  greater  service  in  the  future.     The 
Plymouth  Brethren,  Particular  Baptists,  and 
several  other  small  sects,  stand  for  the  old 
orthodoxy  based  on  the  verbal  inspiration  of 
the  scriptures.     Their  position  is  represented 
in  some  small  degree  in  most  of  the  Free 
Churches    and    will     always     attract    those 
who   fear   new   ways   and  need  the   support 
of  some  external  authority.     The  Unitarians 
stand  for  the  very  opposite  view.     They  are 
intellectuaUsts    pure    and   simple,    and   with 
them  religion  is  a  thing  of  the  head  rather 
than  of  the  heart.     They  have  rendered  very 
great  service  to  the  cause  of  the  Free  Churches 
by  their  zeal  for  education  and  social  reform,, 
and  by   their  steady   advocacy   of   freedom 


248  NONCONFORMITY 

of  theological  thought.     They  appeal  mainly 
to  the  cultured  few,  and  as  a  denomination 
do    not    make    very    rapid    progress.     Their 
aims  and  methods  naturally  keep  them  apart 
from  the  Evangelical  Free  Churches,  but  as 
changes  are  taking  place  on  both  sides  it  is 
to   be  hoped  that  better   relations   may  be 
estabhshed  in  the  not  very  distant  future. 
As   the   range   of   theological   study   widens, 
and  the  historical  and  experimental  methods 
come    into    greater    prominence,    the    hard 
dogmatic    attitude   which    has   characterised 
both   sides  aUke   is   found  to   be   no  longer 
possible.     And  as  it  comes  gradually  to  be 
understood   that   behef    in   the    Divinity   of 
Jesus  Christ  depends  not  so  much  on  philo- 
sophical  interpretations  of   His   Person   and 
place  in  the  Godhead,  as  on  the  Christian's 
personal  faith  in    and  devotion  to  Himself, 
the  old  Unitarian  controversy  loses  much  of 
its  point  and  meaning.     There   will  always 
be  a  great  gulf  fixed  between  those  to  whom 
Jesus  Christ  is  a  mere  man  among  men,  and 
those  to  whom  He  has  the  religious  value  of 
God.   Meanwhile  Christians  of  all  types  will  do 
well  to   cultivate   a   larger   charity  in  their 
relations  with  each  other,  remembering  always 
the  words  of  their  Master,  "He  that  is  not 
against  us  is  on  our  side." 

It  very  often  seems  to  the  outsider  that 
the  Free  Churches  present  a  picture  of  almost 
hopeless  confusion  and  that  their  divisions 
are   a  grave   cause  of  weakness.     But  they 


THE  PRESENT  TIME  249 

are  not  in  the  least  conscious  of  this  them- 
selves. Apart  from  the  Unitarians  and  one 
or  two  very  small  sects,  the  great  mass  of 
them  are  entirely  at  one  in  spirit  and  aims. 
They  are  Evangelical  in  the  best  sense  of  the 
word,  and  they  have  not  the  least  difficulty 
in  working  together.  They  recognise  that 
some  of  the  old  causes  of  division  are  no 
longer  operative.  They  are  hoping  that  it 
will,  therefore,  be  possible  for  them  to  draw 
nearer  one  another,  and  in  some  cases  even 
to  unite.  But  they  do  not  regard  their  differ- 
ences of  organisation  as  any  real  hindrance 
to  the  unity  of  the  spirit  and  to  common 
service.  They  reahse  that  they  are  much 
better  off  than  the  Anglicans,  who  within  the 
bonds  of  a  rigid  uniformity  are  more  seriously 
divided.  The  variety  in  the  Free  Churches 
has  no  taint  of  disloyalty  about  it,  but  is  the 
free  outcome  of  their  vigorous  Hfe.  So  far 
as  Protestant  Christianity  is  concerned,  they 
believe  that  the  future  is  with  them,  and  they 
have  no  fear  of  the  changes  it  may  bring. 
They  are  prepared  to  adapt  themselves 
readily  to  new  circumstances  and  conditions, 
and  their  adaptability  again  is  a  sign  of  life. 
At  the  same  time  they  are  loyal  to  their 
traditional  faith.  They  stand  for  spiritual 
freedom  above  all  things,  for  the  right  of 
the  individual  to  enter  into  personal  com- 
munion with  the  Divine  and  to  worship  God 
according  to  the  dictates  of  his  conscience. 
They  have  no  feehng  of  hostihty  to  any  other 


250  NONCONFORMITY 

Church,  but  are  wiUing  to  live  and  let  live. 
To  them  the  Church  is  a  spiritual  body,  and 
the  only  Head  and  Foundation  of  the  Church 
is  Jesus  Christ.     Therefore  they  are  against 
the  principle  of  State  Estabhshment  because 
it  means  secular  control  in  spiritual  things 
and  is  an  infringement  of  the  Crown  rights 
of  the  Lord  Jesus.     They  cannot  admit  the 
claim   of   any   Church,  simply  because   it   is 
estabhshed,    to  a    regularity    and    authority 
which  they  do   not  possess   themselves.     It 
is  by  their  fruits  that  Churches  should  be 
judged  and  not  by  any  position  of  privilege 
they    may    have    attained.     In    refusing   to 
conform   and   in   actively   seeking   the    Dis- 
estabhshment  of  the  AngHcan  Church  they 
are  animated  by  no  desire  to  see  that  Church 
injured  or  humihated,  but  rather  wish  to  set 
it  free  to  give  its  testimony  and  to  do  its 
work.     If  it  be  urged  that  once  the  Church  is 
disestablished  Nonconformists  will  no  longer 
have   any  raison  d'etre,   they  cannot  agree. 
There    will   always   be    room    for   the    more 
democratic  ideal  of  Church  government  and 
fellowship  which,  in  their  various  ways,  they 
represent.     They    have    proved    the    worth 
of  their  principles  and  methods  by  experience, 
so  that  these  have  come  to  have  a  positive 
value  of  their  own.     They  can  appeal  con- 
fidently   to    the     contribution     they     have 
made  to  the  religious  hfe  and  progress  of  the 
world    as   their    best    justification.     Though 
they  have  to  face  some  very  difficult  problems 


THE  PRESENT  TIME  251 

in  the  immediate  future,  and  are  always  con- 
fronted with  the  necessity  of  reconstructing 
their  theological  position,  they  do  not  lose 
heart  or  hope.  At  the  present  time  they 
are  showing  their  determination  to  meet 
the  needs  of  the  hour  by  fresh  efforts  and  new 
enterprises.  Their  history  is  a  perpetual 
source  of  encouragement  and  inspiration. 
They  believe  in  the  continual  guidance  of  the 
Spirit  of  God,  and  in  that  belief  they  are 
prepared  to  go  forward  conquering  and  to 
conquer. 


BIBLIOGRAPHY 


The  following  books  form  a  useful  selection  from  the 
great  mass  of  material  available  on  the  subject. 

1.  General, — Clark,  History  of  English  Nonconformity  ; 
Silvester  Home,  Popidar  History  of  the  Free  Churches; 
Skeat  and  Miall,  History  of  the  Free  Churches  of  England  ; 
Turner,  Original  Records  of  Early  Nonconformity  ; 
Burrage,  The  Early  English  Dissenters ;  Gardiner, 
History  of  England ;  Evangelical  Christianity^  its  History 
and  Witness. 

2.  Special  Periods  and  Persons. — Trevelyan, 
England  in  the  Age  of  Wyclif  ;  Gardiner,  Lollardy  and 
the  Reformation  ;  Gasquet,  The  Eve  of  the  Reformation ; 
Frere,  History  of  the  English  Church  in  the  Reigns  of 
Elizabeth  and  James ;  Neal,  History  of  the  Puritans ; 
Dexter,  Congregationalism  of  the  last  Three  Hundred 
Years  ;  Ivimey,  History  of  the  Baptists  ;  Burgess,  John 
Smith  the  Se-Baptist ;  Taylor,  History  of  the  General 
Baptists  ;  Arber,  Story  of  the  Pilgrim  Fathers  ;  Drysdale, 
History  of  the  Presbyterians  in  England ;  Clarendon, 
History  of  the  Rebellion ;  Trevelyan,  England  under  the 
Stuarts  ;  JMasson,  Life  of  Milton  ;  Hetherington,  History 
of  the  Church  of  Scotland ;  Gardiner,  Constitutional 
Documents  of  the  Puritan  Revolution ;  Gardiner,  History 
of  the  Civil  War,  History  of  the  Commonwealth  and  Pro- 
tectorate ;  Stoughton,  History  of  Religion  in  England ; 
Barclay,  Inner  Life  of  the  Religious  Societies  of  the 
Commonwealth ;  George  Fox,  Journal ;  Firth,  Last 
Years  of  the  Protectorate;    Burnet,  History  of  his  ovm 

253 


BIBLIOGRAPHY  253 

Times ;  Brown,  Life  of  Bunyan ;  Gould,  Documents 
relating  to  the  Settlement  of  the  Church  of  England  tinder 
the  Act  of  Uniformity ;  Lathbury,  History  of  the  Non- 
jurors ;  Wilson,  History  of  the  Dissenting  Churches ; 
Leslie  Stephen,  English  Thought  in  the  Eighteenth  Century  ; 
Gledstone,  Life  of  George  Whitefldd ;  Southey,  Life  of 
Wesley ;  Wesley,  Journal^  Edited  by  Cumock ;  Paul, 
A  History  of  Modern  England, 


INDEX 


Abbot,  Archbishop,  62 
Act  of  Supremacy,  26 
Admonition,  The,  35 
Ainsworth,  Henry,  51 
Amsterdam  Church,  51,  52 
Andrewes,  Bishop,  48 
Angflican  Settlement,  24  ff. 
Anne,  Queen,  152 
Apolowetical  Narration,  81 
Authorised  Version,  61 

Bancroft,  Archbishop,  62 
Baptists,  52,  148,  245 
Barbon,  Praise-God,  58 
Barclay,  Robert,  104 
Barrow,  47 

Baxter,  87,  96,  127,  135 
Beverley,  John,  13 
Bible  Christians,  191 
Bible  Men,  14 
Bible  Society,  200 
Bilney,  19 

Birmingham  League,  206 
Bishops'  Wars,  79 
Black  Death,  11 
Bonner,  Bishop,  49 
Bowland,  Thos.,  46 
Bradbury,  Thos.,  158 
Breda,  Declaration  of,  116 
Bridge,  Wm.,  81 
Bro\vn,  Robert,  44  ff. 
Bunyan,  127 
Burghlev,  Lord,  48 
Burials  Acts,  211 
Burroughes,  Jeremiah,  81 

Cambridge,  47,  209 
Canons,  Book  of,  70 
Carlyle,  Thos.,  70 


Cartwright,  Thos.,  36,  37 
Catholic  Emancipation,  203 
Chalmers,  Dr.,  219  ff. 
Charles  I,  62  ff. 
Chaucer,  22 
Chester,  Bishop  of,  27 
Church  Rates,  202 
Civil  War,  The,  74  ff. 
Congregationalism,  44  ff.,  147, 244 
Conventicle  Acts,  51,  125,  128 
Covenant,  77  ff.,  83 
Coverdale,  Miles,  20 
Cromwell,  74,  86  ff.,  107, 109 

Dale,  R.  W.,  167,  208 
Declaration  of  Rights,  141 
Defoe,  Daniel,  154 
Diotrephes,  39 
Disestablishment,  214 
Dissenting  Deputies,  161 
Doddridge,  164, 169 

Education,  145,  204  ff. 

Edward  III,  9 

Edward  VI,  18 

Edwards,  96 

Elizabeth,  25  ff. 

Elmar,  Bishop,  49 

Erasmus,  19 

Erastians,  82 

Erskine,  216 

Et  Cetera  Oath,  70 

Evangelical  Churchmen,  193 

Fairfax,  92 

Fifth  Monarchy  Men,  120 
Fitz,  Richard,  46 
Five  Members,  The,  74 
Five  Mile  Act,  126 


254 


INDEX 


255 


Foreign  Missions,  242 

Fox,  George,  98  fi. 

Foxe,  John,  15 

Free  Church  Council,  230  ff. 

Free  Churches,  English,  226  S. 

Free  Church,  Scotch,  219  fi. 

Friars,  8 

Gainsborough,  51 
Gangrcena,  96 
Gardiner,  Dr.,  113 
Gifford,  George,  41 
Glasites,  215 
Goodwin,  Thos.,  81 
Graham  of  Claverhouse,  136 
Green,  J.  R.,  95,  122 
Greenwood,  47 
Greyfriars,  78 
Grind al.  Archbishop,  34 

Haldanes,  The,  223 
Hall,  Bishop,  79 
Hamilton,  Marquis  of,  78 
Hammond,  Dr.,  38 
Hampden,  66 

Hampton  Court  Conference,  61 
Harrison,  Robert,  44 
Helwys,  53  ff. 
Henry  VIII,  17 
Higginson,  Francis,  64 
Hodgkins,  John,  40 
Holland,  Church  in,  52  ff. 
Hooker,  Bishop,  82 
Huntingdon,  Countess  of,  184 
Hutchinson,  Col.,  67 

Independents,  81  ff. 
Indulgence,  118,  129,  138 
Ireton,  91 
Irish  Church,  213 

Jacob,  Henry,  58,  62 
James  I,  60  ff. 
Jeffreys,  Judge,  134  ff. 
Jessey,  Henry,  58 
Johnson,  Frances,  51 

Knollys,  Hanserd,  58 
Knox,  John,  21,  23 


Langland,  22 

Laud,  Archbishop,  60  ff.,  86 

Law,  Wm.,  173 

Leyden  Church,  51 

Liberation  Society,  212 

Licenses  to  preach,  131 

Locke,  John,  144 

Lollards,  11 

Long  Parliament,  70  ff. 

Luther,  14,  18 

Marprelate  Letters,  39,  42,  51 
Marston  Moor,  87 
Mayflower,  51 
Methodism,  185  ff.,  243 
Miall,  Edward,  212 
Millenary  Petition,  60 
Milton,  67,  83,  93, 107, 115,  127 
Moravians,  175 

Naseby,  87 

New  England  Church,  56 

Newbury,  87 

Normans,  7 

Nye,  Philip,  81 

Gates,  Titus,  132,  135 
Occasional  Conformity,  145,  155, 

160 
Orange,  William  of,  140 
Owen,  John,  112 
Oxford,  174,  210 
Oxford  Movement,  227 

Parker,  Archbishop,  32 

Paterines,  15 

Peasant  Rising,  11 

Penn,  Wm.,  133,  138 

Pennington,  Isaac,  105 

Penry,  John,  40,  50 

Pepys'  Diary,  125 

Perth,  Articles  of,  77 

Pilgrim  Fathers,  51 

Plumbers  Hall,  34 

Poll  tax,  11 

PrasLytf  rians,  38,  76  ff.,  117, 147, 

223,  242 
I^ride's  Purge,  92 
Primitive  Methodists,  190 


256 


NONCONFORMITY 


Prophesyings,  37 
Protestantism,  22 
Publicans,  15 
Puritans,  29  &.,  63  ff.,  67 

Quakers,  95  ff.,  148,  247 

Regium  Donum,  161 
Remonstrance,  The,  72 
Restoration,  The,  114  ff. 
Revival,  The,  171  ff. 
Revolution,  The,  134  ff. 
Richard  II,  12 
Robinson,  John,  51,  58 
Roman  Catholics,  118,  129,  137 
Root  and  Branch  Petition,  71 

Sacheverell,  153  ff. 
Sacraments,  103  ff. 
Walters  Hall,  163 
Salvation  Army,  247 
Savoy  Conference,  94 
Saxons,  7 

Saye  and  Sele,  Lord,  82 
Scotland,  20,  215 
Scrooby,  51 
Seceders,  217,  218 
Separatists,  43  ff. 
Ship-money,  65,  66 
Sliorter  Catechism,  85 
Simpson,  Sidrach,  81 
"  Smectymnus,"  80,82 
Smyth,  John,  52 
St.  Giles,  Edinburgh,  77 
St.  Giles  Fields,  13 
St.  John,  Oliver,  82 


Stanhope,  Dr.,  49 
Statistics,  233 
Strafford,  72 
Strype,  17,  41 
Sunday  Schools,  194 

Test  Acts,  138,  201 
Theology,  236  ff. 
Throckmorton,  Job,  40 
Toleration,  96,  110,  142  ff. 
Translation  of  Bible,  19 
Turner,  Rev.  G.  Lyon,  129 
Twisse,  Wm.,  81 
Tyndale,  19,  20 

Udall,  John,  39,  40 
Uniformity  Acts,  18,  27,  120  ff. 
Unitarians,  149,  162,  196,  247 

Vane,  Sir  Harry,  82 
Vestments,  32 

Waldegrave,  39 
Wales,  Religion  in,  173 
Watts,  Isaac,  164,  168 
Weavers,  15 
Wesley,  Charles,  183 
Wesley,  John,  174  ff. 
Wesley,  Samuel,  153 
Westminster  Assembly,  80 
WTiitefield,  174  ff. 
Wliitgift,  36 
Winthrop,  John,  68 
Wyclif,  John,  9  ff.,  23 

Young,  Mr.  Justice,  49 


COLUMBIA  UNIVERSITY 


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